"Catechists & Kerygma" - Fr. John Riccardo

are you catechists are you evangelist and and if one or the other why or both why I mean what are you because you have to know like who's coming to me what's my audience here and I think it's safe to assume most of the people who are coming to you they're not evangelized and if they're not evangelized then I then remember the image that we use when we did alpha city years ago so to try to categorize somebody who's not been evangelized as like planting seeds and concrete and hoping that something will grow nothing will grow it's a great image and so we have that this is part of the crisis in the church right the crises is we have people who've been sacramental eyes but not evangelized we use that expressions so much now that maybe we don't think about it enough again but I think it's really important we have people who've so they'd been baptized they've made first confession and they're preparing for they've made communion some of them have gotten confirmed or we're preparing them for confirmation but they live in homes which more or less live like practical atheists by which I simply mean for lots and lots of church-going people God has zero practical impact in their daily lives that's that's what I mean by practical atheism so they believe in God I'm not saying that they don't but like he really makes no difference it's kind of two bishops like they don't make much difference in people's lives so God doesn't make all that much difference in a lot of people's lives countless people who come to our church when I come in people don't come to the church who belong on the rolls but don't come we're talking what people who come to church they don't pray like they don't have a regular structured daily life of prayer they don't frequently come to confession they really think it's no big deal masse they don't read scripture they don't have a biblical worldview they've been formed by the culture in which we live I don't mean any of this condemning I just mean like I think this is an honest assessment this is what people would tell you you know you just ask him do you read the Bible I got one I think somewhere you know it's that one we got it our wedding it's huge still knits shrink-wrap - it's all safe and sound you know so I'm just sort of presume that these people are coming to us and we can catalyze them I don't think you can do that that's why the Kareem is so important because it's the first step so even if it's done quickly the first thing I want to do is I want to proclaim the gospel to you and in proclaiming the gospel to you I'm trying to evangelize you I'm not trying to proselytize you what's the difference between those two I'm not trying to coerce anybody I'm trying to present I'm trying to speak about what it is that God has done for us in his son and I'm trying to invite you for a man biting you and then the response that's up to you that's like that's the fourth part of the krugman all right so the fourth part which we won't talk about today is the response to the proclamation of the gospel which is the all-important thing but that's up to you you know who hear it it's up to me who hear it but I think it's just important as we begin to realize where the keurig milan's in our word catechesis comes on the heels of having heard the charisma and in theory made a decision to be baptized the challenges our people are coming to us having already been baptized not necessarily believers and we're trying to share the gospel with them with me all right this is the dilemma for preaching on a Sunday and it's it's the similar kind of thing that you have with the people that you have in your classrooms you know I've got it you have this very broad audience so you've got kids there some whom know Jesus pray love the Lord even if their parents don't take him to church right they know the Lord other kids I mean Jesus might as well be you know the Easter Bunny and I have no idea why I'm here and I want to be here and I've never heard the gospel and so to just walk in and start catechizing them is potentially it's not disastrous it's ineffective here's what it would be okay so in some fashion we want to find ways constantly it to be you know in the beginning of the year is one of those great opportunities to just say hey we're gonna we're gonna build a table so we can place things on it and the building of the table is the proclamation of the Kramer okay so the Creek mizuki give me like a two-minute summary of the krugman like the four parts step one why we were made okay what happened why things went wrong okay what God did to fix the problem great okay so I'm gonna talk about it in this way but we'll talk about three things so we'll leave the fourth part - I mean that's that's what all of our work in the year ahead is gonna be about after having proclaimed this - to kids now it's up to them to respond to it okay it's up to you and me to respond to it again today so that I would entitle the three parts something like this first why is there something rather than nothing why is there something rather than nothing this is a huge question second it's much worse than you ever imagined and third The Binding of the strong man and the undoing of death The Binding of the strong man and the undoing of death so why is there something rather than nothing it's much worse than you ever imagined and the binding of the strong man and the undoing of death so some of you know st. Ignatius of Loyola so Ignatius was the founder of the Jesuits in the Spiritual Exercises which many people go through and lots of different modified forms or in the full form Ignatius would always encourage people when you go to pray ask for specific Grace's so we the way I would think about these three stages when you're trying to teach kids or when you're reflecting and then and then yourselves in front of the Blessed Sacrament these would be the three Grace's I would ask for the first grace would be Wonder and Trust that's an easy one Wow it's a fun one the second one is not the second one we need to get to step two of the keurig my heart to the grace I would encourage us to ask for and when we teach it is the grace of utter hopelessness I want to taste despair and the third grace would be unshakeable confidence so I want to walk us through these three things and I want to emphasize step two and three in a particular way because I don't think I don't think we so when I say we so I mentioned briefly yesterday sharing this with priests and part of the reason for saying it was just to kind of put everybody at ease you know like when we were doing the teacher retreat yesterday at one point as we were beginning you could just kind of sense in the room like there was a amongst some people there was a spirit of inadequacy like I don't think I can do this I don't think I'm worthy of doing this I don't have what it takes and we just kind of called that out you know and led people through the simple you know like in the name of Jesus I renounce a lie that I'm inadequate for this so if any of you feel that in any way that that's something worth doing just pray out loud that way like like even now just repeat after me in the name of Jesus I renounce the lie that I am inadequate in the name of Jesus I renounced the lie that God can't use me just not true none of us is qualified for this none of us is qualified for but God equips the ones he calls and that's not just a fun line in Scripture it's the truth all right so if you've been selected for this if you do this then lean into him and trust him like with a friend of mine who's a bishop who when he got named a bishop he said okay Lord if you're asking more of me then I I guess that means I can ask more of you and so for us if God's asking more of you you can ask more from him because you've been tasked with trying to plant seeds into the lives of young people so ask him for graces I would encourage you late it to that I mean it's kind of what I say to priests so the most significant thing I think for when you preach is to ask the Holy Spirit to give you an anointing when you teach please do the same thing just very consciously ask the Holy Spirit anoint me right now let what comes out of my mouth have a power which can transform the lives of those who are hearing this let it not be me and my words don't want this be a show let it be an act of love and do what you promised to do Lord that that you just like the just like the rain does not descend from the heavens without watering the ground so every word that comes forth from my mouth the Lord says so Lord put your words in my mouth so that their lives might be impacted and help me just to trust that even if I don't see the results something's happening in their lives even if I'm just planting see and someone else is gonna water them later that's fine I don't need to see it just help me to trust that what I'm saying are your words they're anointed they have a power I want to speak with authority I don't want to speak like men okay but I should go back to this allusion to the priest last night that I was sharing when I would when I teach this to guys guys don't know this okay so guys who went to seminary don't know this type of there's a young priest in the archdiocese he came to see me a couple months ago and he you just want to get together about preaching and to talk and he says you know I just want to talk about how to preach difficult topics and so we started talking a little bit I said that's a great question to ask probably not where I would start you know he want to get to know the parish and who these people are and whatnot and and then he just said I think I started quite honestly we just sharing the charisma and so I started sharing what I was share with you all and at a certain point like his pen comes out and he's just writing furiously he's like we never heard any of this so again I share that with you to go like if you haven't if you don't know this don't worry about it that's why we're trying to take the time to do it okay and I'm gonna do this in a in a much more condensed fashion than I will do it say it RCA or that I do it with priests but I just want to focus on three key things for these first three parts okay make sense that's where we're going we want to so the first one is why is there something rather than nothing so that sounds like a mouthful of a statement that's a huge question philosophically speaking and most people never ask it and we want to try to lead we want ourselves reflect on it we want to try to lead kids into it too so to ask the question like why am I here like how do I get here like why why do I exist why are there trees why is there a Sun why they're animals why are there animals and parts of the world that no man or woman will ever see like why is why is there stuff so the the world answer to that question and the world which is impacting them in countless ways answers that question more or less this way this is the atheistic materialistic hyper scientific answer to this question because you just happen to evolve from evolutionary gunk like you just happen to be here that's the answer so there's really no point so don't even waste time thinking about that there's no meaning you just are and you just are and you know so since you just are like have fun like that's what the goal is just have fun have as much fun as you can try to make some money you know avoid pain be nice but that's that's more or less the answer you know that's the lens if you will that the world is trying to offer them don't even waste time thinking about things like that and that was more or less the answer of the contemporaries of Israel their vision their worldview was one that was filled with anxiety and with despair because life had no meaning and if life has no meaning then you just live anxiously right and that's what our kids are riddled with today we have a epidemic of depression and despair in young people in rich young people like how is that possible so we want to as we proclaim the gospel and especially with this first part we want to shatter that right I want you to have a sense of wonder and unshakable trust and how am I gonna do that I'm gonna I want to do that by proclaiming creation to you and so Genesis 1 and 2 are really helpful for this especially one line in Genesis so the the biblical worldview have the set of lenses the answer scripturally to the question why is there something rather than nothing is because the one God who is good who is love who is generous who is majestic and beautiful and gracious who needs nothing out of his love and out of his goodness wanted you to be here like he called everything into being that's why there's something rather than nothing because God says Sandra it is good that you exist I want you to be you don't happen to be I want you to be and I want you to be because I want you to know me to know my friendship to know my love to enjoy creation and one day to share in my own abundant life for all eternity that's the answer okay now who is this god so flip to Genesis so we you know and let us in prayer I prayed you guys pray you lead your kids to pray and when we pray you know I know about you but like I always I'm extremely visual so I'm always I'm picturing things right so I'm picturing God whatever your images of God it's wrong I mean it's just wrong it's not even close right so flip to Genesis 1 verse 16 so the point of looking at this verse and a particular weight is we just want to take a moment to ponder the majesty of God for the purposes of being bewildered and filled with a sense of awe and wonder and then to have that trust which counteracts the anxiety and the fear which is rampant and our lives in an countless other lives okay so someone read Genesis 1:16 please nice and loud okay does anybody have another translation what do you got okay anybody got anything else anything all right so I think this is one of the funniest lines in all the Bible God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day the lesser sight the lesser light to rule the night semicolon oh yeah he made the stars too just think about that for a moment he made the stars too I was out in Wyoming in the summer and there's no there's no ambient light in Wyoming it's really pretty majestic and so the Sun sets and like God turns on the lights and you see the stars you go up north or you go to places where there is no light you know and you and you just kind of get overwhelmed by this so so let's just look at the size of the universe for a minute okay with the point in mind that we want to have a sense of wonder so that we can be filled with trust so oh yeah he made the stars - how many stars did he make so let's just think about this so our Sun right a star it's one of a hundred billion stars in our galaxy I already can't get my hands around that all right there are a hundred now we're talking roughly right there are roughly a hundred billion galaxies in the universe each with a hundred billion stars in them now I'm Way beyond my capacity to even picture that right so how big is this so some of you heard this image before but like because because I'm visual this helps me so I heard a guy he was talking in a men's conference one time and he was trying to help people understand the size of the universe so how big is his universe he says so picture that the universe that every star in the universe is a grain of sand if the universe was a sandcastle where every star in the universe was a grain of sand how big would the sandcastle be he says it would be five by five by five be five miles wide five miles long and five miles high so getting a car one day have someone else drive all right and stick your head out the window and try to picture this drive from here to nine mile and then five miles east and then five miles south and back to here and look up and try to imagine this that's the universe oh yeah he made the starter I forgot to mention that sorry right well here's another way to think of it so our son's a small son small star so you can fit into the Sun 960,000 Earth's the the goal in all this again is wonder like I want to grasp the magnitude of God all right we want we're trying to proclaim to you that you exist because God wants you to be here who's this God who wants you to be here he is immense alright so 960,000 Earth's inside the star R star the Sun the largest star in the universe you can fit seven quadrillion earths into that doesn't help me what's a quadrillion right well it's an arc right anybody know how many seconds ago a million seconds is or how many how much how long ago a million seconds ago is eleven and a half days a billion seconds ago how long's that 31 years ago a trillion seconds ago 29,000 BC a quadrillion seconds ago 31 million years ago you can fit seven quadrillion earths into the largest star whatever you think God is you're wrong and he made all of this without any effort he just said let there be light and there was light that's the sense of wonder okay some of you've seen the louie giglio video how great is our God if you haven't seen that watch it there's parts of it which are really helpful to show to kids wouldn't show the whole thing necessarily but parts of it because he just he just starts showing in visual form the size of the universe it's just spectacular and he uses all these great little images you know like if you were a golf ball or the earth were a golf ball you know how many golf balls could you fit inside this it's it's really good so you want to just kids have such an awesome sense of wonder right you just want to exploit that okay so that's the Wonder part where's the trust part come from here's where the trust part comes from so the God who made this without effort who just spoke it into being right the creature the thing that he loves the most the point of all of creation was us he loves pandas he loves me more he loves sea otters he loves me more he loves whatever he loves me more he loves you more because we and we alone are made in the image and likeness of God and we were given this task of exercising Dominion not domination but Dominion on the earth and were created for friendship with him and with each other were made out of love think of the prodigal son when the father says to the older son near the end of the parable son everything I have is yours that's the father to us it was all made for us and so the God who made this universe five by five by five we're every star as a grain of sand that is the God who holds you right now in his hand the the creature that most gets his attention in this immense universe that's beyond trying to understand is you and he knows you he doesn't see crowds there are no crowds for God there are no unknown people for God he knows everything about me He willed me into existence I'm always on his mind that's where the trust comes from that makes sense that's the answer the question why is there something rather than nothing because the God who made this universe willed it into being and the the creature that he loves the most in this unfathomable place is us you just want to embed that and you we want God to embed that into our lives to shatter anxiety and fear and we want to embed that into the lives of our kids you matter you don't just happen to be here you didn't come out of the slime you are because God loves you and this God who loves you is so much grander and so much more powerful than you can fathom okay so I'm right there in his hands now from there this this first step can get you know it's not like to click on the file and it expands this can get huge so when I when I teach this to adults or to the least junior high in up it gets much bigger I'll walk through Genesis 1 and 2 in a very particular way most especially the distinction between male and female and how man and woman both and only both image God which is very important it's very important for us to get right so man does not exist what it means to be in the image likeness of God woman does not exhaust sure to say what it means to be in the image and likeness of God the part of the problem in the world in which we live is that the world motton by and large has been normed not just by men but by deformed men so men who don't understand what it means to be a man a genuine man have normed reality and then so something like the radical feminist response to that is so women then try to imitate deformed men and then you get this mess that we're in right so men behave badly then women are like well how come you can get away with that I'm gonna imitate that I'm gonna behead badly too and somebody got to people behaving badly and you get a mess what we need are men and women who think with the mind of Christ to norm reality it's why it's so important in it's so important when you teach to keep in mind that the people that you're teaching are of a gender other than you in addition to your own they will experience reality differently than you it's why like in our staff it's important that we don't just have men because men and women will see situations differently that's how God's created it and we want we want to all look at this that's why the leadership team I have is men and women because I need a perspective of somebody who's not me not just not me but not a man because we need to see things we need we need that that's how God's created this to be the the foundation of this is just the Trinity the Trinity are three distinct persons who are not the same so we hear especially some of us have a particular age and older we hear separate or different but equal we think that's code for kind of like keeping you down but that's not code for keeping somebody down that the foundation of that's just the Trinity the Trinity is Father Son Holy Spirit they are not the same but they are equal in dignity but they're distinct persons they're they're each distinct the father's not the sound the son is not the spirit okay I would also when I do this I would expand it pretty significantly to talk about I'm especially from Genesis to try to answer the question how do I find happiness and what am I made for what will make me happy and Genesis 2 is great in ripping that apart especially in this in the story of the creation of woman where God looks at man and says it is not good that man is alone why is it not good that man's alone God says I will make a helper for him the hebrew word is as ere is the ER which means anything but a servant that's that word in the Old Testament is almost not always but almost exclusively used for divine assistance this is not a servant okay which is really important to teach especially as kids get somewhat older because you want to help them understand that the biblical worldview is not somehow against women this is not out of touch God is not out of touch so what does the man need help for why is it not good that man's alone the man needs help to be human why is it not good to be alone cuz alone I can't be happy why because what makes man the human person man a woman happy is love and love requires another who is like me but not me and so that whole truth is what's being unpacked in Genesis two in a poetic way right when God puts the man into a sleep then he brings the animals to him or before he puts him into a sleep he brings the animals to him which is another humorous scene right don't read don't read scripture with a stoic voice you know God is telling jokes all the time we just don't get them but you're supposed to picture this right like them God's bringing all these animals to man hmm what's gonna make him happy the poodle what do you think right no I thought it was man's best friend so all these things what he's doing is he's just heightening within the man the sense of no that's not it I want more and so this is a really important lesson for for us and for kids too right so God makes us aware of desire and then he doesn't just satisfy it he expands it so to be human is to be one giant desire like I want and I want a lot like I am a massive appetite and the Christian response to that is not you know at the Buddhist response to that is desire nothing right the problem is desire eliminate desire you will be happy the Christian response is anything but that the Christian response is no you just got to desire more you know you're not desiring enough you're settling for two little butts CS Lewis's great image when he says we're like children who are being offered a vacation at the ocean and we're content sitting in the backyard in a puddle of mud so the problem is not desire we don't want to curtail that in children or in ourselves I just want to want the right things and that's what God's God takes God's amplifying the man's desire as he brings all the animals before him and then finally comes woman and the man speaks for the first time it says that one that's what I've been waiting for finally one like me but clearly not me and and the man understands by simply looking at the woman and the woman understands by simply looking at the man I am made for you meaning I am made for love to be loved and to love and that's the only thing that will make the human person happy life without love is meaningless you can have all the toys in the world it can't satisfy because I'm not made for that nothing wrong with toys they just can't satisfy so we want to try to teach that then we want to try to help teach them what does it mean to love because that's the next place you gotta go and the answer to that you got we all got to find ways to communicate this to people but the answer to that is to love somebody is to want what is objectively good for them anybody speak Italian in Italian you say I love you T volio bene it's a great expression I want you well that's how you that's how you love somebody I want you well it's about you not about me let's love so we want to we can amplify that in lots of different ways as we teach okay that that would be what I would do is what I do and teach them to step one okay all right let's try to plow through step two and then we'll take a break okay so here so we asked for wonder and we asked for trust in that that's the fruit of that so the God who made this universe he's got my life in his hands okay that sounds beautiful if that's the case you know Kelly or father and how come everything is so screwed up how come my home is not a fun place to go to how come I don't have any friends how come my mom died how come whatever and so the grace you want to ask for here I mean this is a hard grace we did this yesterday with the teachers and man it was a lot of Tears but if we don't get the bad news you will never understand why the good news is good news and the bad news is horrific how did it all go wrong and this is this part in the next part of the parts that I don't think we teach well quite frankly I don't think priests teach this I don't think they know it well and I don't think we teach it well when we share the charisma with people if we even share the charisma so here's how I would walk through this so there's only one God and he's good there's not two guys it's not a good God and a bad God they're kind of like going at it and man hold the good God wins there's one God everything he makes is good among the creatures that he makes our angels and one of the Angels out of envy rebels against God and goes to war what's envy you should be jealous of certain things jealous jealousy isn't necessarily a sin Envy is a deadly sin to capital sin because it gives rise to other things so we're close it's good what's the doing jealousy and envy yeah so envy is the sadness over the good of another this is really pathetic and when you realize that you have it in you it's really humbling it's the sadness over the good fortune of another like you have X and the fact that you have X provokes in me a sadness over your good over your blessing and we want to make sure we understand who the who the angel is envious of because he's not envious of God he's envious of us wisdom says through the envy of the devil death entered the world and those who are in his possession experienced it the envy of the devil death entered the world it's wisdom 2:24 I think and all those who are in his possession experienced it who's in his possession everyone apart from God okay we're gonna get there so the the the angel is not envious of God he's envious of us and he's envious especially of the plan that God has for us to be divinized to share in God's own abundant life yeah he's just incensed that we who are puny creatures in comparison to the majestic angels would have a destiny which is greater than the Angels so he goes to war who's he go to war against us not God he goes against the he goes to war against the creature that God loves the most that would be you and me you got to get this right and he goes to war so Genesis 3 right tells us the story of the war of the hora or the shows us the strategy of the one who is at war against us so when we did rerouting we talked a little bit about this for those of you who remember but Genesis 3 which describes the fall it doesn't simply tell us what happened it tells us what always happens when the enemy tries to deceive us so the strategy of the devil is basically to get us to think that we can find happiness apart from God and that God is not good he cannot be trusted he's not holding out or he is holding out on us now when when I do this and I would encourage you to do this but I don't wanna do it right now because it'll take too much time it's important to break open the whole understanding of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil this is a poetic way of describing something so it's the tree the knowledge of good and evil is not a test it's not arbitrary it's not like Adam and Eve didn't know the difference between good and evil and weren't ignorant that way what they didn't have was they didn't have the experience of evil and so the whole point about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that it's a gift it's the necessary condition whereby the friendship that they have with God can continue in order to stay in friendship with God you got to trust him that's how love works you got to trust the other person and the whole idea of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is I will claim I will take for myself the right to determine reality apart from God I don't need you and so I cut myself off from God that's what happens this makes sense with me if I cut myself off from God who is life then the necessary result is I die because I'm I'm cut off from life ok this part I think we usually get more and more here's the here's the part that we don't get though this is the thing I think we want to stress that's why this so we say often times so you know we talked about the charisma and the four parts and usually with this part we say it's sin and its consequences and we talk about okay so the consequence of sin is separation from God well who cares like big deal I'm separated from God so how does that impact me well if I'm separated from God if I'm not in his hand I'm in someone else's there's no middle right this is almost impossible for an American to get because we are so so distorted and are thinking that I am independent I am my own man I am bow to nobody I am NOT a slave of anything I make the decisions in my life and you don't realize that when you say that you're actually speaking like somebody who's in the possession of the enemy so the consequence of sin the reason why this is much worse than we've ever imagined is because our race sells itself into slavery and it sells itself into slavery against powers that it cannot compete against for especially it's all written with capital letters sin death hell and Satan we don't usually get this right so we want to help we want to know ourselves and we want to help children understand that sin is not simply something that I do or I don't do that's true but that's small s sin capital s sin is a kingdom it's a power it's an authority and the human race is under its Dominion how do you prove that there are things that you do that you hate that you still do there are things that I do that I hate that I still do ever wonder why because of this that's what Paul is talking about in Romans seven in that famous passage the good I want to do I do not do the things I hate to end up doing that's not Paul talking that's the human person talking apart from God so it's not just that it's not just that I have a bent will now which I do as a result of the sin and the rebellion it takes place in the fall and being born into this race which has sold itself into slavery it's not just that I'm somehow not right like Humpty Dumpty that fell off the wall it's also that I am now enslaved by someone here's the image that I would have that that I find helpful the image would be of a human trafficker so like this is how I encourage people to pray picture I wouldn't do this with children necessarily but picture that you are in the possession of a trafficker so you have been apprehended captured chained and you are in the possession of somebody who lives to use you to degrade to humiliate to exploit they just they they get life from making your life literally hell that's why this is much worse than you thought this is the consequence of sin I am in the possession of a trafficker Jesus is referring to this in Matthew 12 when he talks about a strong man guarding his possessions a strong man is the devil his possessions of the human race which has been deceived by him and the result of the deception and falling for the deception is we gave ourselves into his power and there is nothing you can do to escape you can't get out that's that's how I would expand that it's not just that something's wrong with me it's that something's got a chain on me the ultimate expression of which is death you can do everything you want you're going into a box and again if we don't sit with this then the gospel is just news it's not good news you with me on why this is so important to get all right Catherine of Siena in her dialogue the father says to her at one point the pains of hell and one of the paint in the third paint of hell I think is is the site of Satan and Catherine saw got a glimpse one time of the enemy and the father says to her what you saw was nothing so so the evil that is this being who is a creature who is not equal to God that's really important but the evil that is this being is far worse than your worst nightmare the heart of man is I wouldn't show this here to kids all right but very worth watching are you watching on I think it's on Netflix I think I don't think it's on YouTube it's so Christian movies speaking real frankly for myself I've I can't stand I think they're incredibly cheesy and so I wouldn't send I don't recommend the people this is not like that I'm just speaking blonde sorry this is a combination of people giving testimonies and a very dramatic story played out so the cinematography is gorgeous the music is powerful it's very well done and so it's four or five people given stories mostly men there's one woman and is this particular thing all has to do with either haven't been sexually abused or you know like having affairs or addicted to pornography or whatever it might be and so these people are sharing their stories and what happened to them and then what what it led to and as they're sharing their stories you see the story of a father and a son and very close some kind of family life and at a certain point the the Sun gets seduced by this woman and the result of the seduction is that the woman was not in fact a woman and he gets captured and stuck into a cave and chained by this being who just beats him and that's his life and that's the lives of these people who are describing what it is that their sin had brought them to and then the father moves to free his son and the way he does this is really powerful it's really really moving sixty two minutes or so so I'd encourage you to watch it so I hear cave and I think that now so that this is this is something that forget for the moment how we would teach this to children that for us the more we can reflect on this and try to grasp and comprehend the more the Lord will teach us how to share this with kids but if we don't get this you just don't get why the gossipy you don't understand why our mission is what our mission is to offer every person in our community a life-changing encounter with Jesus like why it's not an add-on to their lives it's not just something that you know keeps us occupied or that we think would be kind of cool for you to have like if it doesn't happen you're in the possession of the trafficker it's one or the other there's nothing else worth doing so God has freed us like most was saying early like it's not just like I've come to know him and like things are a little bit better now no no I used to be there and someone did something and now I realize everybody's there and I want them to be freed you know the Christian life is not private devotion it's about public witness and rescue that's what this is about we are about rescuing people not from boredom from death and sin and a trafficker and every kid who walks into our classroom like God has given a certain Authority to you to take them back for him so alpha is you know they're over there right now the people are getting trained for alpha one of the things that they stress for them we said it shared this with the teachers yesterday I'll share it with you all right now so people how many people here have done alpha so one of the things people often are surprised by when they begin is like well we don't pray well has anybody been a host or a helper yeah so if you've been a host or a helper you know like well then ain't true at all like we pray like crazy but we pray before people come in right so you know the meal starts at 6:30 and so people walk in well from 6:00 to 6:30 everybody who's gonna be at the tables guiding the conversation they're praying together for all the people who are coming into the doors that the spirit will saturate the tables anoint the conversation that hearts will be open the minds will hear what the Lord wants to say in a similar way this is my suggestion to the teachers yesterday and it's my suggestion to you right now before you do anything the day you teach gather together even if it's for three minutes and go and pray father may every kid who walks into our classrooms tonight may they know you may they encounter your son and in the name of Jesus I take authority against anything which is trying to keep them from him and then go teach but first do that and realize that you might be the only one who's even doing that for these kids so use some that authority if you will that's being given to you because of the fact that you're standing now in the role of the parent whose task it is to teach their children the faith but they may or may not be doing it so you do it but do with conviction do with the conviction that the gospel is power like we talked about last night okay so thankfully that's not where we end right I think when we teach the charisma and we start talking about the consequences of sin we miss it entirely and I think priests don't get it and that's why we miss it so we don't hear this so hopefully that makes some sense okay I also don't think we get the third part right and this is especially true maybe and this you know there's a lot of women in here so what I'm gonna share may or may not resonate so much with you but please note this really resonates with the boys you teach so we want to talk about binding the strong man and the undoing of death that's God's response to sin there's a lot of ways to come at this let me give you a couple scriptures that are worth writing down first Matthew 12 29 how can one enter a strong Mans house and plunder his Goods unless he first binds the strongmen then indeed he may plunder his house we'll talk about that in a moment first John 3:8 the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil John 12:31 now is the ruler of this world cast out John 12:31 Hebrews 2:14 15 since therefore the children should be us the race share in flesh and blood he himself the son the eternal son likewise partook of the same nature why that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage and then we're going to look at Colossians chapters 1 and 2 especially verses 13 and 14 chapter 1 verse 13 14 and then chapter 2 verse 15 will save those for a minute Colossians 1:13 14 and Colossians 2:15 so there's a lot of like entry points into this third part of the Craig mahir's here's one of the ways that I would do it it would be something like this if so can't borrow this real quick so make sure make sure this is a this is a crystal and if you turn crystal you see different facets right as the light shines through it and so if this is the Lord and we're and we're trying to understand him my experience has been that we tend to offer a diminished view of who he is and what he's done meaning this concretely we emphasize a lot the kindness of Jesus and the patience of Jesus and the mercy of Jesus and the goodness of Jesus and blessed be God for all those I would be toast all right and so would you but they don't exhaust who Jesus is Jesus is not simply kind he is kind and he's not simply good he is good and he's not simply merciful but he is merciful he's much more than that and one of the reasons why men are not attracted to Christianity is because that's all they hear and so Christianity can sound weak women too but I'm just speaking as man so The Passion of Jesus when we talk about it we usually emphasize two things we emphasize that Jesus on the cross is showing us how much God loves us that's true by all means that's true that moves some people it doesn't move a lot of other people it just doesn't so if it moves you great praise God right but it just doesn't just know it doesn't move a lot of people like look how much God loves you so but we talked about that a lot our worship songs are often about that and so they can sound sappy to some people or we emphasize second thing that Jesus on the cross is taking my place he's making atonement for me he's bearing in his own body my sin also very true that moves fewer people right I mean you look at Jesus on the cross and and most people kind of go really like I'm not that bad a guy that was the solution come on I'm not pull pot or Idi Amin right so but that's true he is making atonement he is taking my place there's a third part though that we almost never talk about which is in fact the way the Fathers of the Church most talked about it it's the way the early church always taught the passion that Jesus on the cross is going to war so one of the ways that I find helpful to teach this if we had a history book in front of us and I opened it up and I said you know we opened up here to you know world history and here's a picture of the Allies landing at Normandy on June 6 1944 and you see these guys stepping out of the landing crafts and they've got helmets on and flamethrowers and machine guns and I said bride what are they doing there if it's a multiple-choice test he probably doesn't circle the option that says they landed to see the sights or they wanted to visit the Louvre or they heard the the coffee on shomsul was a was just spectacular no they landed to fight so d-day presupposes Nazis the Incarnation presupposes hell and Satan so the question why does the eternal son of God become flesh like why the Incarnation the answer is to invade a kingdom by a stronger Kingdom it's to get his creature back his children back who are rightfully his who are in the possession of a trafficker so God becomes man to go to war we don't teach this and so Jesus is reduced to a philosopher or a storyteller and someone who meets a most unfortunate end so our crucifixes haven't arrived yet it for the expansion but so if there was one I could point to it but there will be soon so if you look at a cross so here's a man on a cross there's Jesus on the cross and if I look at that and I asked you is he a victim or is he the aggressor is he the hunted or is he the hunter and we always think he is the victim and he is the hunted he's not he is the aggressor and he's the hunter so the cross is not an unfortunate demise of Jesus it is the point it's why he came he came to do that and in doing that he undoes death if you if you get this this is my God's God's an amazingly clever creative response to our predicament is just like only God comes up with us all right so that way the early fathers of the church would talk about this would say something like it was only right that the one who deceived our race at our beginning should himself be deceived and thereby bring about his own destruction and one of the images that the I think it's st. gregory of nyssa uses is a fishhook so Jesus on the cross is like a fishhook with bait on it his human nature is the bait that's the worm but his divinity is the hook and he wants to get swallowed because he wants to kill death that's what's happening here so some of you heard me shared this before but I find this to be the way that's most helpful for me to think and to talk about this so shortly before Holy Week just praying with the Gospels and on my way in to say Mass at the school and sitting there in the chapel and out of nowhere I just hear the Lord say two words which I have never heard in my life and the two words were ambush predator and so I I know enough of how you know God moves in my life to go okay I think that's you so I don't know someone a Google ambush predator and if I click on this thing and I started to read this and I just started to laugh so an ambush predator is a creature which lies you know that could be a spider it could be a snake different things in the water so it's a creature which lies motionless and still camouflage with its environment so as to attract the prey to come close so that when the prey gets within reach it can pounce so as I'm reading this I just hear the Lord say that's me I am the ambush predator that's what Jesus is doing in his passion he is literally becoming motionless and still his divinity is entirely camouflage Satan does not know who Jesus is Satan is never gonna pick a war with God he knows he can't beat God he's perplexed by him right even when they say we know who you are the Holy One of God that doesn't mean he knows that he's got in the flesh just knows he's the Holy One of God whatever that means right think of the temptations in the desert if you are the son of God like he's just asking quit it doesn't get it doesn't if you know the story the Lord of the Rings like it doesn't enter into sarang's mind that somebody would want to destroy the ring no one would destroy the ring the ring is all about power everybody wants power and so he's blind to this idea that the ring would get destroyed in a similar way Satan is blind to this I did there's no way God's gonna become a man and he's sure as heck isn't gonna suffer for this puny little creature are you kidding the majestic God who made this universe that's five by five by five because that's that's a blind spot for the enemy so God becomes man he's in disguise he's behind enemy lines and he's waging war by humility but in order to get this you got to understand the utter degradation of the cross so what we don't you can't you and I can't possibly fathom the horror of crucifixion and the shame of crucifixion I mean crucifixion was designed specifically to degrade and humiliate that was the point it's unlike anything we've seen it was done it it wasn't done you know in basements it was done at five mile and back so that everybody would see it so that everybody would see you utterly exposed because you're totally naked and this is the death by which God chooses to save us and to go to war and so from the moment of say the agony in the garden on especially what's happening is Jesus is more and more and more cloaking his divinity he's camouflaged it's for a purpose it's to attract the prey so he sweats blood he allows himself to get arrested he allows himself to be chained we're talking about the God who made the universe here remember how big he is he allows himself to be chained he allows himself to be spit on he allows himself to be slapped he allows himself to be laughed at he allows himself to be judged he allows himself to be stripped he allows himself to be scourge he allows himself to be crowned with thorns he allows himself to be nailed to a cross and in doing so he's doing this come to me and so I know this is somewhat fanciful but this is actually again this is the patristic way of talking so you got it so I picture at this point now so here's the Lord on the cross right breathing is last and as the Lord's breathing is last here comes Satan to stand in front of him and you know in my own imagination I imagine the conversation goes something like this you know son you're uh you're pretty intriguing you don't sim but that woman over there at the foot of the cross she doesn't sin either and you've done some pretty miraculous things but I've seen miracles before but in a few minutes you're mine and that's exactly what Jesus wants we say these things at mass all the time I dying you destroyed our death how because he wants to get swallowed he wants the fish to bite and the fish bites and so that the church would say it's only proper that he who deceived us at the beginning of our story should himself be deceived by God and he undoes his kingdom anybody seen the Passion of the Christ remember the scene what happens immediately after Jesus dies greases last now Satan screams this is bizarre scene right you just see him on a Dyess like spinning and screaming why is he screaming because he's undone himself at the very moment when he thinks he's won he's actually lost and so at this point now so for us is especially as Latin Catholics and Western Catholics the cross is the image that we pray with the most for the Eastern Church for the Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox the image that they pray with the most for the passion is the liberation of hell and so the liberation of hell if you look up am a stas is that's a lot of s's a and a s das is honest asses so honest athis is the Greek word for resurrection so it's a it's an icon so the UH the honest ocess is the lord emerging from this cave which is the mouth of hell and he's radiant he has his cross as a standard holding it and he's stepping on something he's stepping on hell on Satan and his hands are outstretched and in one hand is a man and the other hand is a woman and and to them has attached this long line of people the man is Adam the woman's the woman is Eve and he is plundering hell and along the ground at his feet are all these keys and locks because he has loosened them from the throes of death he's liberating the strong man's possessions he's bound the strongman and liberated everybody who was in his care or in his hostility huh this is what he's done so the image go back to the trafficker so we asked for the grace of hopelessness right and despair so you wanted you want to try to sit as the victim of human trafficking like I this is my life and I can't get out and so you know picture now that's you and it's nighttime and you're trying to sleep but you don't sleep well because you know what's outside the door and what can happen and suddenly somebody walks in taps on the shoulder and you Joel because that that's never good there's no good touch here and all of a sudden you're expecting to see you know the thing but you don't see the thing you see this man who's just amazing and so you're immediately like this is new but what about him and the man just kind of stands you up unlocks the chain and just puts his arm around you and starts walking towards the door and you're walking towards the door and you feel two things simultaneously you're here you feel tremendous anticipation and excitement and amazing fear because you know what's outside the door and the whole time the Lord's just got his eyes on you it's like just watch me it's okay I got you and you get to the door and you look down and you brace and you see that man duct-taped bound gagged and the Lord just goes it's all right I took care of him we can leave here that's Colossians 1 so Colossians 1 right he has delivered us or transferred us this is not poetry from the Dominion of darkness that is to say from the power the control were the authority of Darkness transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of our sins so by birth it's almost like when I got born into this race which it sold itself into slavery I was in the possession of the ruler of this world and I was doomed to hell and all of a sudden because of the redemption of what Jesus has accomplished for us I was transferred I got new papers like I got a new birth certificate and said no no we tear that one up and you belong to me you're my son or my daughter and he has no authority over you anymore that's not your homeland this is your homeland it always was it's just that you couldn't get here if I didn't do something so I've done something and I've rescued you you with me all right look at Colossians 2 so here's this third we talked about the the the image of Jesus as a crystal you know he's not just good he's not just kind he's not just loving and merciful he is all those things but he's so much more so this passage Colossians 2:15 it's supposed to help us understand this but because we're 21st century Americans we don't quite get this so Paul writes he disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them or spectacle of them triumphing over them in his cross or in him by his cross so we read that and we go I don't know that means Paul's audience hears that and everybody knows what he means so he disarmed principalities and powers is more literally he stripped or disrobed the principalities and powers who are the principalities powers sin death Satan health made a public spectacle of them he humiliated them triumphing over them by his cross so triumph is a really particular word for the Romans it's a technical word it's a Rome is a Empire filled with spectacle a triumph is like a mega spectacle in an empire of spectacles you have very precise conditions by which a triumph is actually held it's like a massive parade thank you no Tigers win the World Series you got a parade down Woodward now multiply it by a thousand all right it's a massive parade but it's a parade and to celebrate a victory and so a triumph is when the emperor comes into town into Rome in his chariot with his regalia surrounded by his army and behind him is all that he has just defeated in this battle so for example Julius Caesar before the time of Jesus has an eight-year battle with the Gallic Empire whoever the head Gaul was France northern Italy wherever Germany after eight years he find the Roman art Legion wins Caesars now seated on his throne he seated there all cleaned up all the blood and the dirts washed off his armies all around him and they bring the king of Gaul on the general they are me in front of him and he's standing there as Caesars seated and as the king standing there one of the soldiers comes up and he slits his clothes and all of a sudden the king of Gaul the general of Gaul is naked in front of everybody they force him to his knees and then they bring the the gold eagle which is the emblem of Rome and they put it in front of them and they make him kiss it to show that you've lost to us they stand him up they pull his hands behind his back to chain him they put him in a cage and they parade him back to Rome this is the beginning of a triumph in over the course of days and weeks they make their way from Gaul all the way back to Rome and they finally come through the streets of Rome and they get to the forum and as they're coming into the forum with all of the empire there because this is the enemy who has been at war with us who's trying to destroy us in comes Caesar riding on his chariot with all the spoils behind him and at the end of the line in a cage is a man chained and naked with a sign above his head that says this is the one who used to threaten us and terrorize us he won't do that anymore that's what Jesus did Jesus is not just kind and he's not just good he is absolutely and utterly uncomfortable and he has fought for you so we found not too long ago there's a sermon from a man named Melito of Sardis so this is early second century so you can I'll send this to Sandy and then maybe you can distribute this to everybody so this was his Paschal sermon I won't read the whole thing it'll take an hour I'll read the ending so this is the picture this is the conclusion in a church right do an Easter homily after having described everything that the Incarnate son of God has gone through but he arose from the dead and mounted up to the heights of heaven when the Lord had clothed himself with humanity and had suffered for the sake of the sufferer and had been bound for the sake of the imprisoned and been judged for the sake of the condemned and buried for the sake of the one who was buried he rose up from the dead and cried aloud with this voice who is he who contends with me let him stand in opposition to me I set the condemned man free I gave the dead man life I raised up the one who'd been entombed who is my opponent I he says and the Christ I am the one who destroyed death and triumphed over the enemy and trampled Hades underfoot and bounded the strong one and carried off man to the heights of heaven I he says and the Christ therefore come all families of men you have been be fouled with sins and received forgiveness for your sins I am your forgiveness I am the Passover of your salvation I am the Lamb who was sacrificed for you I am your ransom I am your light I am your Savior I am your resurrection I am your king I am leading you up to the heights of heaven I will show you the Eternal Father I will raise you up by my right hand this is the one who made the heavens and the earth who in the beginning created man who was proclaimed through the law and prophets who became human via the Virgin who was hanged upon a tree who was buried in the earth who was resurrected from the dead and who ascended to the heights of heaven who sits at the right hand of the Father who has authority to judge and to save everything through whom the father created everything from the beginning of the world to the end of the age this is the Alpha and the Omega this is the beginning and the end an indescribable beginning in an incomprehensible end this is the Christ this is the king this is Jesus this is the general this is the Lord this is the one who rose up from the dead this is the one who sits at the right hand of the Father he bears the father is borne by the father to whom be the glory and the power forever amen that's Jesus saying do you think you know me you don't know me do you have no idea who I am and what I can do I am NOT nervous I have no rival there is one Lord every knee will bow at my name and that's the one who entrusts to you and me the task of sharing the gospel when you know him then you have confidence I am not afraid that's why no matter how bleak what might be happening in the church right now going back to our conversation last night no matter how bleak things might get I'm not afraid because he's Lord okay that's not a title it's a truth so Matthew 16 right remember the famous passage of who do men say that I am some say John the Baptist some say one of the prophets who do you say that I am Peter speaks up you're the Christ and I say to you you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it what does that mean we've often totally misunderstood this passage usually what we mean is especially for a time like this it's like well no matter how bad things get like the church isn't gonna collapse that's what we know that's what he promised right no that's not what he promised that's not what you said what are gates for keep people out or keep keeping people in write gates are defensive ever been attacked by a gate right now that's not what Jesus says what Jesus says is go and get them hell has no chance because I am God and I want my family back and I will act and I will rescue that's the one who sends you and me that's why our mission is what our mission is we want to be instruments in God's hands to go get his family back now let's end with a little bit of realism clearly this isn't done yet so let's go back to d-day in the imagery because this is helpful for me understand this right this is an imperfect image but it's a helpful image perhaps d-day June 6 1944 the war doesn't end for another year so VE Day is 1945 but the moment the Allies land at Normandy the war is over at least in Europe and everybody knows it the Allies know it Germany knows that everybody knows it but the war doesn't stop there's battles that keep going on for another year so so it is with us actually the moment of the Incarnation the war is over that's why we that's what we honor Mary all that needs to happen is that woman to say yes she says yes it's done and she said yes from that moment on you can't stop this the only thing that could stop this was Mary saying no so the war is over but there are a lot of battles that's why revelation says woe to you o earth for the devil prowls and he knows his time is short Satan knows he's lost he's under no illusion there are a lot of battles going on that's why things are still not as they should be yet so we live in this time that theologically we call the already and the not yet Jesus is already won definitively clearly not yet fully are you and I experiencing the effects of that people still get abused there's still domestic violence there's still murders there's still cheats whatever I still struggle you still struggle why is it that if I've been rescued from the power of sin I still sin right great question cuz I have memories I have habits and I have a deformed will but I'm not under the power of sin like I used to be my God can really buy my cooperation with His grace I can become a saint and you can become a saint but that imagery helps me to just kind of go okay I'm living in this already but not yet so Lord keep me close to you cuz if as long as I'm close to you and I'm in grace the enemy can't touch me he can't have me he can touch me he just can't have me okay that make sense and then the fourth part of the krugman is so what do you do in response to a god who's done this for you whatever you want absolutely I mean I will do whatever you want that's what you do all right cuz God didn't send an angel to do this God did this himself for me in the process if I had wonder in a sense of trust at the first stage of the career mode no I got it even more like this is how much I matter this is how much I'm worth to God like God fights for me in this way in this humiliating way God fights for me to save me to get me back that's what every person's worth to God you're worth dying for to God the one who made the universe and then once we've done that now I got a really solid table now I can build now we can start talking about the Catechism right now I can place things on this now I see like okay this is a vision of reality this is how I got here this is why things are messed up this is why I got reasons for hope in the middle of the mess alright let's begin now we can categorize okay

Channel: OLGCPlymouth

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Keywords: OLGC, Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, Catholic Church, Plymouth Michigan

Id: tpi-tBRA7IY

Length: 96min 46sec (5806 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018