Explaining the Faith - Understanding Jesus In a New Way

okay well welcome back everybody for a continuing part of our series the explaining the faith series i'm father chris aylar it's great to be back i've been gone for several days in michigan and thank you to everybody who joined us last week for our talk on the holy spirit and we're excited i'm i'm so happy to be back with all of you who are members of our marian family i know so many of you by name now and and comments and so we're great it's great to be here with you i think it's the 31st or 32nd straight week that we've been doing this and today we're going to be talking about as you saw on the slide understanding jesus in a new way doesn't mean it's new in theology the church has always taught this but it's new to many of us including myself when i went to seminary so let's begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask that you send your son our lord jesus christ down upon us as knowledge and wisdom himself to open our minds to receive this knowledge to then go to our hearts to live it in love and through the intercession of saint faustina who told us that you jesus are love and mercy itself we ask for this in all blessings upon all of our mary and family who are joined with us and we ask this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen well thank you everybody for all the well wishes the comments the emails i'm going to be doing the mass tomorrow here at live stream at nine so i'm back to be as i said it's nice to be back i was in detroit i really wasn't vacationing although i don't know if brother mark can zoom in on it i don't know if he can show you this but this was a t-shirt that uh is a memento and i thought it was quite funny it was a slogan that says i'm so bad i vacation in detroit and so that's where i was i was in detroit thank you for all the prayers for my mom she's hanging in there um i love her dearly and god bless all of you for praying for her and but it really wasn't vacationing that my parents could tell you it was working the whole time the exciting thing is is i was able to finish this book which is going to be the first book in the new series called explaining the faith so all these talks we've got coming new dvds that i've been saying we'll be releasing the following talks after the first 13 and brother mark can show you on the screen what i mean here the dvds we've already released in this first 13 talks you can get at 800 462 740 or visit shopmercy.org or live stream at thedivinemercy.org explaining the faith we'll be releasing those talks starting after the 13th soon and then i'll be releasing a book and the first one will be on divine mercy part of the explaining the faith series so all exciting now why am i excited about today because today we're we're getting it okay two weeks ago we did the trinity in who the trinity is in our understanding then i decided to go in reverse order last week we talked about the holy spirit because this is the way back to god the father so we we talked about the holy spirit this week we're going to talk about the second person of the trinity and next week we're going to talk about god the father in the old testament which is so hard to understand for many people we're going to try to explain that for you and then after that the ten commandments and the seven deadly sins which help us to live a better life all right so let's start looking at the second person of the trinity understanding jesus in a whole new way again not new to theology or christ church teaching but new to many of us who haven't heard these things we know this let's look at our our next slide and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved that name is jesus christ jesus all right you may know this let's do some summary but we're going to get into stuff you may not know the word jesus means god saves okay he is the messiah but what does messiah mean messiah is is the one that's going to deliver the people but the actual meaning is the one anointed with oil so who's the one anointed jesus how was he anointed with oil what's the oil the holy spirit we talked about this last week jesus is anointed because as we said last week the holy spirit is his anointing the holy spirit is the oil but jesus is the one anointed and now he's going to take us back to the father that's what this is all about today so who was jesus now here's where it gets interesting even non-christians will say that they believe jesus was a good man whether or not they believe he was god or not they don't all agree but almost everyone agrees jesus was a good man i'm going to show you right now that if you believe jesus was a good man you also have to believe he was god well father i know good men who are not god i'm going to explain it okay he claimed he was god so if he was not god he couldn't be a good man he'd be a liar and so jesus wanted everyone to believe that he was god and he wanted people to worship him well father i don't know about that yes he did in the bible he said before abraham was i am thus saying something no jew would ever say no jew would ever say this dare to speak it he claimed to forgive people's sins to the jews they believed nobody could do that except god so jesus was claiming this jesus speaks and acts in the very person of god and no one else had ever done that before or since especially for the jews so everyone agrees he was a good man yeah you believe he was a good man yeah but a good man would never do those things say what he said unless he was who he said he was does that make sense all right there are two possibilities here either jesus is speaking the truth or he is not if he speaks the truth he is god and the case is closed we must believe him and we must worship him now if he did not speak the truth and he is not god but a mere man he would then be a bad man because again he would not be speaking the truth in fact he would have been a very bad man either morally or intellectually because nobody said what he said so if he knew he was not god but said he was then he is morally bad lying to deceive you and all generation since him into blasphemy that's actually why he was crucified now if he sincerely thought he was god but really wasn't then he's intellectually bad even insane now no one though who i would think could read the gospels could come and think that he is morally corrupt or insane the love the human wisdom all of these things the attractiveness of jesus all emerge from the gospels no matter who you are if you're reading those gospels it doesn't matter who you are i think you could see that so the question becomes who invented christianity we catholics claim jesus christ did many people say no it wasn't well if if it wasn't jesus who was it who invented it peter the 12 apostles his other followers after he died who invented it and mainly for what reason this is a key question it couldn't have been people sincerely confused that really believed it i had some people say to me well father i think that they really believed at the apostles they were just sincerely confused no no jew confuses a creator with a creature or god with man no jew also confused a dead body with a resurrected one none of us would so let's look at the next slide these are the grave claws this is the tomb or tomb like it but this would be the grave cloths notice now this is just a remade reenactment of the tomb of course this is not the actual tube with glove grave claws but notice how it looks is how it was described in the bible let's look at this the grave clothes were not disarranged they were lying neatly still folded not just thrown off okay so let's look at this okay 75 pounds of spices are what most believe would have been or traditionally what was put in a body at the time of christ's crucifixion if there were 75 pounds of spices wrapped up with the jesus with the body of jesus inside the shroud jesus if he wasn't really dead and got up would have pretty much had to really struggle to get out of it when he did finally get out of it that grave cloth would have been a shambled mess maybe even torn to shreds and the sudarium the face cloth would not have been nicely rolled up again if jesus wouldn't have really died but actually woke up later and if somebody had stolen the body this is what a lot of non-christians claim they would never have left the clothes behind let alone folded them how many robbers in your houses would steal all your silverware but then fold up the napkins and leave them behind for you it doesn't happen all right no thief would have taken the time to unwrap the corpse and then fold the clothes here's the point in those days robbers stole the linen and left the body the body was of no value to them the linen was a value it was a fine woven cloth so really what would have happened if the if robbers stole this body was they would have taken the linen and i should have said robbers not steal the body but if robbers broke into the tomb they would have stolen the linen not the body because that is what had value not the other way around here the body's gone and the linen is left and so that's not what would have happened and plus the blood stains on the shroud of turin are not smeared in the least if jesus if that body even if he would have tried to get out of it himself or if somebody would have pulled that linen off of his body to get the body out there would have been blood smears there's blood on the shroud but it's not smeared at all this is fascinating and so it was as if the body simply evaporated from underneath the cloth so this is all proof positive that i don't think these apostles were confused another big thing for me and i talked about this in seminary the first witnesses to the resurrection were women now no offense ladies but if you're trying to pull off a hoax the last thing you're going to use in first century palestine was women witnesses because they weren't legally valid only men were legally valid witnesses so the first witnesses to the resurrection again no offense ladies but would not have been in first century palestine a hoax a person doing a hoax would not have picked women to do that so if you're going to do a hoax this was not the way to do it and there was no reason what what reason would these apostles or disciples have had to do this why would they have invented the whole elaborate lie of christianity with absolutely no motive what was their motive here's the thing you know what they got out of it and they knew they were going to get this you know what came out of their hoax if it was a hoax here's what came out of it their family and friends disown them and i'm talking about the apostles and the followers here the friends and families disowned them their social standing their possessions and political privileges were all taken away by the jews and the romans they were persecuted imprisoned whipped tortured exiled crucified eaten by lions and cut to peace by gladiators does this sound worth going through for a lie i don't think so the only way anybody would go through this would be for the truth nobody is willing to die for a lie only the truth the growth of christianity makes no sense if jesus christ and the resurrection was a lie or a hoax people some people say jesus didn't even exist there's no way millions over the centuries would go to their death for him if he wasn't true they were timid these apostles were timid and even hiding right until pentecost they weren't all about out there proclaiming if they were doing a hoax they would have went running out of the tomb after the third day running around jerusalem trying to proclaim their hoax no they weren't they were hiding in the room terrified that tells you that they weren't up to something they were scared and it took several miracles the resurrection and the ascension in pentecost for them to get the strength and the courage to go out and start preaching this is amazing and so this shows who jesus was unlike any one in human history nobody else claimed or did what he did and this is what we're here to talk about today so who was this jesus that so many people would be willing to die for let's look at our next slide who is jesus jesus is god who became savior who became man who became our friend who became or will become our spouse jesus is god to savior to man to friend to spouse now last week we talked about you cannot love what you do not know the intellect our faith teaches us our thinking comes before the will are acting before you act you think about it even if it's for a split second and so we cannot love what we do not know so we have to start with christology this is a series of courses i took in seminary and a lot of what i'm teaching you guys part of our marian family are actually going to seminary that's what's so awesome if you watch this whole series with us and we only do one a week so you can catch up hopefully and like i said this is like the 31 or 32nd one we've done you're basically getting a seminary education and that's so awesome that you're here as part of our marian family to do this with us and so the first thing we need to do on that list is see jesus as god okay why the world was created okay the father is the creator but he created through the word he spoke all into being that word as we said last week is jesus christ now this world was created through the word of god who is jesus or is the second person of the trinity not jesus yet and he sustains everything in life and provides us everything we ever need now he is also our savior because right after creation as you heard in my other talks it took adam and eve all the 10 minutes to get broken mankind got messed up so then jesus was born where a promise was made way back in the garden that a savior would be born this is beautiful saving us from eternal death after this fall and how was the savior brought to us through the incarnation all right so now he's god now he becomes savior born as jesus now he then died for us because he loves us this is the essence of who jesus is love and mercy and we'll get to that as saint faustina says so we see in the divine image divine mercy image will talk about now the next thing was after jesus who was god became our savior and was now born a man he then said no greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for his friends so this god who became our savior who then was born a man has now become our friends and he says no greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for his friends so when we understand jesus as a man we need to see him as our friend that's why some of the most powerful prayer is just speaking to jesus like you would a friend not being afraid so as a man he is our friend but remember friendship is a two-way street we seem to get in the tendency that our prayer becomes jesus i need this i need that help me here help me there that's good but prayer excuse me but friendship is a two-way street this is why we need to console jesus and actually show him mercy not just him to us but us to him and we'll talk about that finally what is the best marriages in the world when you marry your best friend your spouse and jesus is the groom and the church is the bride you've heard me talk about this many times the bride is the spouse the church us so the bible begins with a wedding adam and eve man and woman and ends with the wedding of the book of revelation you've heard me say before at the mass so who is jesus he is god he is savior who became a man who became our friend who becomes our spouse that's exactly what you found in your soul mate a person a man became your friend and then became your spouse powerful no other religions care about the ontological or metaphysical makeup of their leader like we catholics do do you know muhammad said i saw a vision buddha said i found a new path now those religions admit their leader is not god the muslims admit muhammad isn't god the buddhists admit buddha is not god one said i saw a vision the other said i found a new path they can't save because only jesus died on the cross jesus doesn't say i found a way or a new way jesus says i am the way let's look at our first and only video today which is only a minute long but it basically summarizes in a great way i can't believe how well this was done in one minute and who is jesus jesus of nazareth or yeshua in his own aramaic language was a jewish man who lived two thousand years ago on the eastern end of the mediterranean sea the earliest accounts of his life called the four gospels come from the eyewitness testimony of his followers jesus grew up on the scriptures of his people israel that say god chose abraham to bring his blessing to the nations jesus said the story was being fulfilled in him and that he was the one bringing god's reign to our world he called this the good news of the kingdom of god jesus announced god's kingdom to the poor and the sick and he accused israel's leaders of being corrupt he challenged them in jerusalem fully knowing that this would get him killed but his plan was to be enthroned as king by dying for the sins of his people later the followers of jesus visited his burial place but it was empty then jesus appeared alive to many saying that he was the king of the world opening a new future for humanity then he sent his followers to spread the good news of his reign around the world isn't that a great little summary you know as we said either you believe that jesus is the son of god a member of the trinity or we don't now this is why i love and i talked about this a long time ago in one of my talks really briefly but our next slide pascal's wager this is this is awesome basically pascal said it is safer to believe in god even if there is no proof that one exists all right what did he mean by that okay pascal's wager basically you are wagering your eternal salvation and your fate on whether or not you believe in god now remember believe in god unlike the protestants we we catholics believe that it's more than just thinking he exists i mean the demons believe god exists but to believe in god is to be a follower to actually follow his commandments so here's pascal's wager if you believe in god you have everything to gain if you are right you have eternal life and you have nothing to lose if you are wrong because after death nothing happens so you risk nothing but you have a chance to gain everything if you're right and you risk nothing if you are wrong now conversely if you don't believe in god you have nothing to gain if you are right after death it's nothingness you've gained nothing but you have everything to lose if you are wrong and there really is a god this pascal's wager is awesome so if jesus is god and that's a great bet we must dedicated our lives to knowing him and loving him okay so here's the question we must love him now in fact a lot of people say father what does the bible say that i gotta hate my family to be a follower a disciple of jesus he says unless you hate your mother and your brother and your sister you can't be my disciple i've had people tell me that's why they're not christians no the hate there does not mean to despise in the original language hate means in this case to just love less what it means is your order of importance has got to be in your life god first spouse second children third in that order all right now let's go back to our slides to know jesus we start with the trinity let's go back to our famous slide we've shown the last couple weeks who is god right in the center okay you have god is up to the left the father god is to the right the son and god is to the bottom the holy spirit but the holy spirit is not the father the father is not the son and the son is not the holy spirit so this gives us a little insight that they are distinct but not inseparable all right remember who the father is remember who this holy spirit is and remember who the son is now i've talked about the holy spirit last week today we're talking about the sun tomorrow excuse me next week we'll talk about god the father especially the old testament now when the father thinks remember we talked about this the last couple weeks when the father starts thinking he begets the son that's knowledge he's thinking all right and from the father thinking we see our next slide the son when the father thinks he thinks the word the thought the knowledge the wisdom that's the son that's our next slide now he begets the son now when the father loves who does he love he loves the son and that love between the father and the son is so powerful that from it proceeds the holy spirit so the holy spirit is that love freely given between the father and the son if this is confusing go back to my last two talks one on the trinity one on the holy spirit i explained all this more detail now this is what makes us human knowledge and the free will to love it's what makes us human beings we think we are rational creatures unlike the animals and we love unlike the animals now animals do have unconditional love when they come and smile at you even no matter how bad a day you've had but i'm talking you know what i mean true intimacy right now we are in the image of god with knowledge and the free will to love so why was it the second person the son who became incarnate why wasn't it the father or the holy spirit that became on this earth walking around okay it is fitting that it was the son who became a man because knowledge was the key starting gift given to mankind let's look at our next slide what was in the garden that got adam and eve in trouble people always say the tree of life they ate from the tree of life no they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they wanted to be like god now in the garden man was seeking knowledge and so now what did god do he delivered it not in the form of an apple but he delivers it in the best way the son in the form of a man it's almost like the father said let me offer you what you really want but sought inordinately he messed up so god gave us his son let's look at our next slide jesus christ who is wisdom and knowledge that's right from the bible his knowledge of wisdom itself the highest of the gifts of the holy spirit wisdom man is perfected in wisdom we talked about this last week in the holy spirit it's one of the gifts the best gift and since he is a rational creature he has wisdom animals are awesome i love animals but they don't have wisdom all right but when man has wisdom he is rational and he learns the word of his i guess you go back and say what makes us perfection what perfects us in wisdom is receiving and learning the word of god now we've just received it in the form of jesus christ that's the word the second person of the trinity who wasn't jesus before the incarnation now he is jesus the embodiment in flesh of the second person of the trinity before he was just the spirit of the second person of the trinity now he's wrapped in flesh of man now this man is perfected and all of us mankind is perfected in wisdom and we are rational when we receive and learn that word of god it is the same as a disciple who is destruct instructed not destructed instructed by receiving and learning the word of his master like socrates taught plato plato learned as a disciple from the word of his master socrates and then aristotle i think the greatest of them all learned from plato so this is how they learn now the father gave us the ultimate wisdom of the word of how to learn the wisdom so the father created the world through the word his thinking and when you think how is your thinking manifested through your words and that he spoke creation into being god the father so the father who spoke creation into being through the word how would he best repair that broken world the father would best repair his creation by the same word w-o-r-d the eternal word through which he first created that world so if the father created the world through his spoken word let it be the best way to fix it and to repair it is through that same word now it's also fitting that the sun became incarnate that it was the sun because we too are adopted sons we are not the father we are sons so what better way for us to relate to a father than a son himself the second person is the son there's no better way for a son to learn and we are all adopted sons than from another son and so we can also inherit the kingdom of the father like he did this is powerful stuff all right so let's look at our next slide what is the meaning of the incarnation the incarnation also makes sense because the redeemer had to be both god and man so why is the incarnation needed why did god need to become a man because redemption required that the redeemer be both god and man why all right a man can only make satisfaction for himself but not the entire human race for something as big as the fall there was no way as huge as a as a as a wound that was created by the fall in the garden could a single man fix it all right the entire human race needed to be fixed now and a single man couldn't do it after the fall the damage was so immense that only god could fix it only god could pay the debt the problem was god didn't owe it so here's the point man did it so man should fix it but man's not capable of fixing it only god could fix it so remember that's why incarnation happened is because this redeemer had to be both god and man powerful enough to fix it hence he's god a man to fix it because it's a man who broke it hence he became also a man and this is the incarnation it's also really tradition by a third of the angels that says in the book of revelation fell from the sky a third of the angels fell that day not two-thirds not a fifth not a fourth a third why tradition with a small t says a third of the angels adored the father a third of the angels adored the son and the third of the angels adored the holy spirit and so guess what third fell from the sky the third that adored the sun because it was announced he would become a man and the man at the time mankind was below the angels by by nature but by grace and now the incarnation man has been elevated above the angels this is incredible all right so we have to realize what's going on here now let's go back to the intellect and will we all have an intellect we think and we have a will we act but what about jesus did he have a human intellect a human will a divine will a divine intellect what did jesus christ have all right the second person of the trinity the son always had a divine intellect and a divine will shared with the father and the holy spirit but at the incarnation he assumed a human intellect and a human will let's look at our next slide can anyone explain the hypostatic union well we're about to try what is the hypostatic union it's where that divine nature in the second person of the trinity god the son united with human nature and was born of a woman and became jesus christ the two natures are united in the person of christ now in my mary talk if you want this in more detail you can go back and find it but i asked the question is jesus christ a human person and everybody at my talks yells yes and i say no now before you write the bishop and turn me in for heresy listen to hear me out now from all of eternity we had one god and three persons we had the father who is the person the son who is a person and the holy spirit who's a person three persons if jesus christ was also a human person you'd have four persons in the trinity but we don't have four persons in the trinity so father what are you talking about this divine person the second person of the trinity who had a divine nature for all eternity divine intellect and a divine will came to earth this one person the second person of the trinity and assumed a human nature a human intellect and a human will but and that's the hypostatic union the catechism defines jesus christ as one person two natures so jesus christ is one person two natures this isn't me making this up look it up in the catechism jesus christ is that second person of the trinity the god divine person who came to earth who already had a divine nature and in the hypostatic union assumed a human nature meaning intellect and will so he is a divine person who had a divine nature but now he accepts a human nature so we say he is fully god in his nature fully man in his nature so don't say father christ didn't say jesus is fully man i said he's fully man in his nature he's fully god in his nature but he's only one divine person that's why when mary gave birth to that one person that person is divine we call mary the mother of god not because she created them but she gave birth to the second person of the trinity who had a divine nature who now assumes a human nature this is beyond incredible jesus christ is one person that person is divine he always had a divine nature now he assumes a human nature in the hypostatic union he is fully god and fully man in his nature beautiful so now he has two intellects jesus christ has two wills he has a divine intellect which he always had and a divine will which he always had now he has a human will and a human intellect is this human nature so i have a question for you did he know all things yes jesus knew everything well sort of he still had to learn let's look at our next slide what is the type of knowledge this comes right out of the zuma i studied the summa for 12 years and i'm summarizing it in these talks for you so that you are like you went to seminary with me there were three types of knowledge and please when you send your emails i'm sorry i've been spending a lot of time this week arguing with people who are telling me god is not a trinity god is not a trinity please i can't spend too much more time than i've been doing on that i'm here to teach the tenets of the catholic faith what's given and let's go back to the slide so sorry what the catholic church teaches is there are three types of knowledge in jesus christ there is acquired knowledge infused knowledge and the beatific vision or divine knowledge let's talk about this all right how come it says that jesus and the scriptures had to learn and he grew in wisdom well if you grew that means you didn't know everything to begin with jesus learned things in a human way he had to learn to be a carpenter that's his acquired knowledge he fully let himself be man in his human intellect and learn in a human way then he also had infused knowledge because the bible says he knew what other people were thinking he knew what the pharisees were thinking and he says simon i have something to tell you he knew what he was thinking this is divine being informing or excuse me the divine informing the human intellect so he had infused knowledge and then finally he had the beatific vision or divine knowledge as a divine person he beheld the beatific vision of god and he knew all things so in this way he did know all things but if you say to jesus know how to speak chinese the answer would be no because in his acquired knowledge and his human knowledge he didn't let his full beatific vision or his divine knowledge inform his full human intellect he kept some separation there because he wanted to be fully man and learn as men would learn but in a way he did know all things through the beatific vision the divine knowledge remember he has two intellects here human and divine another reason why that we knew that he chose not to always let his divine intellect and form his human intellect is remember in the scripture it says only the father knows when the last day will be that doesn't mean that that the second person to the trinity doesn't know the son of man doesn't know in his human intellect he didn't know he purposely limited that all right what about jesus being baptized did jesus need to be baptized no but he received baptism why because he wanted to bless the waters and give the example for others to do it now what's funny is he received baptism at 30 years old by john 30 is a very interesting number do you know that joseph the son of jacob was 30 when he was made king of egypt or ruler of egypt did you know david was 30 when he was made king of israel did you know ezekiel was 30 when he began to prophesy so 30 is a perfection i think i've read somewhere i'm speculating here i have not confirmed i've worked tons of hours on these talks confirming everything but i thought i read that 3 times 10 is a perfect number because it's the trinity times the 10 commandments i don't know if that's true but just what i remember reading now this is a form of perfection so jesus was perfected in a way at age 30. now if he was perfect how could he suffer how could he suffer things like hunger thirst pain even death those sufferings were in themselves the punishment for the sin that jesus put on his shoulders he didn't commit the sin but he beared the weight of that sin so he did suffer things like hunger thirst pain and death but as a man however he did not have the effects of original sin because he didn't have original sin so he didn't get sick he didn't get disease he didn't get the coronavirus he didn't have any deformities well father was he tempted this is a good question jesus did not have concupiscence because that's a result of our fallen nature he didn't have this raging violent feeling good he wanted to go hurt somebody because they upset him or this lustful overtake of his of his emotions and his passions because he wanted to have sexual relations with a woman he didn't go through concupiscence but father the gospel says he was tempted he was tempted from without not from within we have to face that because of concupiscence as a result of original sin which jesus didn't have but then you say well geez father that was a lot easier for jesus no because he bore the weight of all the sins like he did commit him even though he didn't this is amazing all right so we know that christ as a man suffered but we should add that it was voluntary he suffered voluntarily to redeem mankind because he was not guilty and he chose to suffer that act merited grace and as the head jesus is the head who's the body we are when jesus chose to suffer voluntarily that grace flowed from the head to the body which is us this is why when you suffer because of your sins it's not as meritorious like if i go to jail because i killed somebody and i'm suffering in jail that's not really meritorious but if i'm suffering from a natural sickness of something i didn't do and i offered up for my loved ones that is meritorious or if i willingly like like maximin and colby go to die for someone else and some crime he didn't commit that grace is given to someone else or can be offered for someone else as the head who suffered voluntarily that merited grace for the rest of the body who was us now the passion then is a super abundant atonement for the sins of mankind this we should meditate on remember first john chapter 2 verse 2 said he is the propitiation for our sins meaning the atonement and not only for ours but those of the whole world what does that sound like that's the chaplet of divine mercy it's scriptural all right however man's individual responsibility for his acts were not taken away nor was free will nullified but the passion removed original sin which made us able to go to heaven so man obtains these graces for heaven through our faith in the receiving of the sacraments and praying prayers and the sacraments are given power they are made efficacious by the passion death and resurrection of jesus christ this is why we need the church for our salvation because in the church you receive those sacraments which are made powerful real by the passion death of jesus christ all right but then why did jesus have to die god could have forgiven our sins people always answered father jesus died to forgive our sins true but why he could have forgiven your sins without a cross all right let's look at our next slide let's go to thomas aquinas thomas aquinas said this is why jesus died on the cross one as the penalty for sin is death you've heard me say that the wage of sin is death paul tells us 2 to prove that he was a true man and he died did god die on the cross we'll talk about that in a minute three to deliver man from the fear of death because we know there is something greater and that is coming up that's number five actually but number four is to teach us to die spiritually to sin and then number five to instill us the hope of the resurrection from the dead this is awesome and that leads us to our next two slides of thomas aquinas what does thomas aquinas say let's put up our next slide if god just forgave our sins which we said he could have done without going to the cross if god just forgave our sins without his son paying the price meaning the cross we would not have been given the many benefits that flow to us from the passion that's what i just described when the head merited that grace it flowed to the body us in other words we would have been redeemed meaning forgiven but not glorified meaning reconciled back to god he just would have forgiven us and thrown us out the door i forgive you i'm not going to hurt you but you're on your own no he glorified us next slide god wanted us to partake of his divine nature glorification this is glorification which is a gift that goes beyond the forgiveness of sins which is redemption all right what does all this mean a long time a long long time ago i can remember remember that song i said that mercy is greater than forgiveness redemption is forgiveness we have been forgiven of our sins but instead of just forgiving us and throwing us out the door god brought us back as sons he let us share in his divine life that is glorification and that is through his mercy that's why mercy is actually greater than forgiveness this is incredible all right let's keep going we're on a roll look at look at brother mark's next picture brother mark takes our photographs out here if you haven't gotten some of our calendars from the national shrine at divine mercy they are incredible you can call our 800 number and get the calendar for next year these are beautiful images this is one that brother mark took this is not a painting or or a brush stroked or what do you call it airbrush this is the actual picture brother mark took and i always ask you know first of all why did jesus die on the cross we just said it to pay our penalty for sin and sin the wage of sin is death all right but why did he have to die in jerusalem because that's where the temple of sacrifice was that's why it was a fitting place for the ultimate sacrifice of the ultimate lamb now jesus died on the cross as brother mark just showed but can we say that god died on the cross this is an age-old question we cannot say that the godhead the father son and holy spirit suffered and died on the cross although he who died as god jesus what we say is the second person of the trinity the divine person in his human nature that he assumed at the hypostatic union suffered and died the god-man died on the cross and so we can say that god died on the cross according to thomas aquinas not the godhead but the god man so a protestant might tell us god paid all this debt the work is done jesus paid all the debt we get the glorification automatically and the answer would be as catholics well not so fast the wound of sin is healed it's forgiven but the scar on the body of christ the sin that that scar or the sin that caused that scar must be also taken care of it must be atoned for when we do this we are then reconciled back to god we are redeemed we are forgiven so the wound is healed but the scar still remains that has to be atoned for and when that is atoned for we are then glorified amazing that's why executive ready too so i told you the three great acts of god's mercy are creation redemption we are forgiven but then glorification the third person of the holy spirit we are glorified brought back into reconciliation that is mercy that's why mercy is greater than forgiveness incredible this is mercy and that's why divine mercy sunday is all about atonement for sins the punishment not just the sin is forgiven but the atonement for the scar on the body of christ of what your sins did and my sins did is also wiped out so we can be glorified sorry i'm getting too worked up but this is amazing stuff all right the greatest mercy is to remove sin but sometimes this causes us suffering because what's taken away from us we were attached to like maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend that were having sexual relations before marriage is removed from us we suffer because we were attached to that sin in the diary of 299 jesus told saint faustina to hide in the rays of his mercy you know the red and the white from the wrath of his father we're going to talk about the father next week was he really wrathful does that mean he wants to come and crush you as a sinner no what father seraphim says is the father is going to strike at sin okay if this is sin i'm holding it as a cell phone yeah sometimes it can be unfortunately for many people but if this is sin god the father is going to strike at it the reason jesus said hide in my rays from the wrath of the father is that the father is going to strike in his wrath at the sin and if i'm holding on to it if i'm holding on to this sin when the father strikes at it i'm going to get zapped too so this is why jesus says let it go and hide in my rays let go of those attachments and this is this is why it's so important you know the old testament figures they wanted to know what god looked like this is who jesus just told saint faustina hide in my race let's look at our next slide this is who god the father looks at like this is the face of the father's mercy jesus is the face of the father's mercy how do we know this mr ray cordial voltus the face of the father's mercy the face of mercy jesus said in the scriptures who has seen me has seen the father when you gaze upon this image you're looking at the mercy of the father encapsulated god's love when experienced by his creatures is mercy that's love of god flowing out to mankind we are called to be the faces of the son's mercy just like the son was called to be the face of the father's mercy how can we do that through our works of mercy remember the book of james says faith without works is dead we don't mean works of the law works of love all right and where sin abounds mercy abounds even the more that's why this is the time of mercy look at our next slide even pope francis announced to celebrate jesus as the year of mercy even though that image i'm not so sure about but hey okay this is what it was it is the forgiving of debt what is the year of mercy that tradition goes back to the old testament forgiving debt instead of captives free but who had the authority to do that to free debt forgive debt and set kept as free guess who had the authority in ancient israel to do that he was either the priest an acknowledged prophet or the king guess what those are the three offices of jesus christ priest prophet and king a priest sacrifices jesus sacrifice a prophet teaches jesus taught a king governs god jesus governs his kingdom and we too at our baptism share in those three offices you are a priest a prophet and a king and a priest offers sacrifice that's why you can make that prayer eternal father i offer you the body blood soul and divinity that's the divine mercy chaplet people always say father i can't make that prayer i'm not a priest i can't offer sacrifice yes you are you are a priest by virtue of your baptism and a priest offers sacrifice so if you can't make it to mass you've heard me say this what's the next best thing you pray the rosary it's like the first part of the mass liturgy the word you meditate on scripture the rosary is not a bunch of hail mary's it's a meditation on scripture like the first part of mass the liturgy of the word but then the second part of mass is like the liturgy of the eucharist or it is the liturgy of the eucharist what happens then the priest offers sacrifice so when you as a priest of the common priesthood by your baptism pray eternal father the chaplet of divine mercy i offer you the body blood soul and divinity you're exercising your priesthood wow incredible all right so jesus was the ultimate high priest he was not only a priest and offering sacrifice he was the victim being offered so jesus was both the one offering the sacrifice and the one being offered so christ is one mediator you've heard this before you crazy catholics you don't understand only jesus is the one mediator yes this is true christ stands between god and sinful man he is the one mediator he offers to god prayers and satisfaction for mankind as a man but he offer also offers a sacrifice to god as god both man he offers prayer as a man to god and to god he offers sacrifice as god remember the mass is god offering god to god god the holy spirit offering god the son and sacrifice to god the father incredible as the body of christ we also participate as sub-mediators we are we pray for each other like at the mass jesus is the redeemer people get freaked out when they hear us say mary is co-redeemer all right let's explain that mary is co-redemptress not cool redeemer that's the masculine all right jesus is the redeemer but mary is core redemptress what does that mean she participated she gave jesus human nature he didn't get it without her co she is co-redemptrix coe in latin is coomb c-u-m it doesn't mean equal to it means with this is powerful because remember in the garden who did satan overthrow the man or the woman did satan overthrow adam or eve all the boys say he overthrew the woman all the girls say satan overthrew the man he overthrew both and if satan overthrew both a man and a woman he overthrew adam and eve it's going to take both adam and eve or a new adam and a new eve to liberate humanity back from satan if satan overthrew both a man and a woman it's going to take both a man and a woman to liberate humanity from satan that man the new eve is of course jesus the main one the mediator but a co-redemptress is the woman the new eve all right now jesus is god we know this but sometimes we only see him as god we need to start seeing him in his humanity and then we can learn more about his divinity remember let's go to our next slide jesus in his humanity is a friend and what does a friend do a friend consoles each other jesus is a friend who consoles us so we need to console him this is the whole premise of father mike's consoling the heart of jesus we can console jesus by also consoling the members of his body this is true each other but we must also console him this is powerful you know jesus told margaret mary ellicott to behold his heart all right this is this is our mother teresa said let's look at our next slide that she found christ through the words i thirst and so jesus is asking us to console him i thirst okay this is powerful this is about him not just about the members of the body this is why atheists i hear a lot of people say well father he doesn't believe in god but he's a really good man he takes care of other people well that's okay that's good that's a start that means he's taking care of the body of christ but what good is a body without a head if you're not also consoling the head the body bears no life and so these atheists who say i don't worry about believing in god i'm a good person i take care of other people you're only doing the part of the care of the body united to also console the head that is why the good atheists still lack all right this is also why we console jesus as the head like the angel did and not just the members of his body you know pius xi said when attacks happen against the church it's not just against the body it's also the attack of the head this is why our next slide shows saint paul there is saint paul leading the martyrdom of saint stephen he was stoned put to death paul did that he persecuted the church but then what did jesus say he said saul when you persecute the church you persecute me because he is the head mother teresa said jesus is still a living person not just an idea so he doesn't suffer any more physically or psychologically like we do but he's united to us when we suffer just like a mom a mom suffers most when her child is sick even more than herself and this in a way is why jesus is still on the cross as long as we are suffering in a way he still is too mary at fatima said her heart was sourful because of the suffering of her children wow so why do we console him this is important it goes back to the school of trust it goes back to god wanting us to trust him after the fall we now naturally fear god he is this ogre the catechism tells us man let trust in his creator die in the garden sin begins it says with a lack of trust so here's how it's connected god wants us to trust him so that he can woo us back as his bride remember he's the spouse god's new covenant is one of doing that the new covenant is one of love and marriage and that new covenant comes to us in the flesh of jesus christ but to do that marriage you won't marry a spouse unless you trust them so jesus who goes from from god to savior to man to friend to spouse we need to trust every step of the way so that's why my next slide shows the little baby jesus he wants us to trust him well that's why he came as a baby who who's afraid of a little baby they have no teeth they can't even bite as i said before who's afraid of a good man we all agreed earlier jesus is a good man he was good to all he met he healed them he forgave him he fed them who's afraid of the greatest love that you could ever show your loved ones a love to die for them and lay down your life you're not afraid of that you trust that if somebody's willing to die for me you better think i'm going to trust him who's afraid of the divine mercy image that we showed earlier that's how jesus came to the apostles he didn't punish him he blessed them so god wants to win back our trust by showing us how much he loves us then he can marry us yes god doesn't need us and he didn't have to do all this but he wanted to why because he desires to be with us forever but so many will reject this gifts this gift or gifts and this pains him and when this pains him we should console him but how do we console jesus this is one of the arguments many people make he's totally happy he doesn't need us true well father if jesus is totally happy in heaven he doesn't need consoling well let's look at saint faustina said in our next two slides all right it seems to me saint faustina said as though jesus could not be happy without me amazing nor could i without him although i understand that being god yes he is happy in himself and has absolutely no need of any creature still his goodness compels him to give himself to the creature and with a generosity which is beyond understanding i do not know how to live without god but i also feel that god absolutely self-sufficient though he is cannot be happy without me are you kidding this is unbelievable all other gods in all other religions aren't like this they are transcendent they would not care this much about us they're disciplinarians no other god would condescend to become one of us and die for us especially out of love the god of islam is a disciplinarian this is abba father a god foreign to all other religions although god doesn't need us true as saint faustina said he chose to become one of us out of love the basis of humanity of the jews was the heart not the brain you know we don't have the most sacred brain of jesus as one of our feasts we have the sacred heart of jesus and at the incarnation he assumed a human heart that's why we have the sacred heart devotion to see jesus in his humanity his heart was filled with the desire not only the love but also be loved powerful he made himself vulnerable with a need to be loved this is why he said he thirsts by quenching that thirst for his love by loving him in return we have mercy on him and we console him let's read what john paul 2 said in the next two slides john paul 2 said he himself seems to merit the greatest mercy and to appeal for mercy when he is arrested abused condemned scourged crowned with thorns when he is nailed to the cross and dies against agonizing torments it is then that he particularly deserves mercy from the people to whom he has done good and he does not receive it whoa all right all right why did he make himself vulnerable like this for the sake of our friendship and the night jesus began his passion in the upper room he said no longer do i call you slaves i call you friends you know aristotle said now i'm bringing you into my philosophy training i did my my seminary at dominican house and holy apostles and i did my philosophy at franciscan university great place and there i learned that aristotle said friendship cannot be one-sided it must both go it must go both ways and we must console the other how can it be true friendship if we are the only ones in need and our prayer is only about me me me jesus i need this i want that please do this please do that no spend some time in prayer saying lord nobody's here visiting you i remember when i was in michigan i finally found an open church and i went there was open and there wasn't a single person in there the first thing i did was apologize to god that all these other people outside cars roaring by people out having fun and nobody's in there with him that was the first thing i did wow john paul said i am convinced that the objective starting point of love is the realization that i am needed by another and so in a way jesus is telling us i need your time now yes he doesn't need it as god he needs nothing but he desires it john paul 2 says this is mercy when it is bilateral both the giver and the receiver are blessed you know what's funny we are not doing true acts of mercy unless that we see that we are benefiting more as the giver than the receiver is you always hear that as better to give than to receive you know what when there's a poor person that you have the opportunity to help you benefit more than they do because you're exercising charity you're giving not just receiving and in fact you do receive the rewards of the merits of god it's beautiful the suffering of the poor and those in need gives you a chance to be charitable the sick give you a chance to pray for them mercy as we said before you remember mercy is a particular mode of love that when love encounters suffering it takes action to do something about it so mercy is mercy is love when it sees suffering and says i'm not just gonna say oh that's too bad i'm gonna do something about it it makes it your own this is why the missionaries of charity the community of mother teresa they do a holy hour to quench the thirst of jesus remember jesus said i thirst before they go to the poor they console the head first before the body we always think we just need to console the body the people who are hurting we also console the head having mercy on jesus is the foundation of showing mercy to your neighbor we sometimes think it's the opposite fact and i'm wrapping up here we even have retroactive consolation this is amazing god is outside of time you know he saw god sees all things eternally past present and future all at once this is the premise of my book and he saw all things in his passion i want to wrap up with some really powerful things do you know that yeah it's true our sins hurt jesus but do you know our acts of love sustained him when he was in his passion how do we know this jesus said so he told saint faustina so do you know you can soul you can console him now for the suffering he faced back at the cross do you know you can help jesus now carry the cross at calvary father that's crazy god is outside of time yes he entered into time and humanity but he's still the same person help him carry his cross you know many paintings show famous paintings show saints standing at the foot of the cross you know the divine mercy navina said bring to me those who have separated from the church they have pained me during my passion now wait a minute all those who separated from the church had to be after the passion of jesus because the church didn't exist yet but jesus said all those who left the church pain me pained past tense pained me during my passion well if this is the case that's why jesus also said in the same thing of the novena of the divine mercy chaplet bring me the souls of priests and religious because they sustain me during my passion there were no priests or religious yet other than the apostles and they certainly didn't sustain him during his passion they ran away so this shows that we can console jesus even today what hurt jesus the most during his passion was the lukewarm sinner and jesus said bring the lukewarm sinner to me don't be lukewarm so i think this is powerful you know pious tradition with a small t says that in the garden jesus mocked excuse me jesus was mocked by satan satan mocked jesus by pointing to him all the people that would reject his love throughout the ages in the garden jesus saw hitler stalin maouti's tongue so much sin and satan was mocking him look at all these people who've rejected you then our next slide the angel came and the angel came to comfort him and pious tradition is the angel showed him all our acts of love now there couldn't be any acts of love at the time in the agony in the garden because nobody knew yet what jesus was going to be god and resurrect from the dead this was all stuff that would come in later generations so last half a page thank you for staying with me if we are disposed at mass we can even be mystically transported back to calvary and be present at christ's crucifixion that's what the mass is we are there as christ is paying our debt to sin that's why the catechism said as the paschal mystery is the one event that transcends means it goes above time and eternity it's ever present wow that's the power of the mass and through the power of the mass through that perfect prayer remember i said my other talks in the past mass is the only perfect form of prayer and when you pray at mass your prayer is perfected and that prayer too can transport you through divine eternity what do you mean father all right if you meditate on jesus as a baby we showed that earlier you are there you are there next to that christ child and guess what humility comes to you in the form of a baby with no teeth you can't bite if you pray and meditate on jesus's public ministry you are there and healing and truth come to you because during his ministry jesus brought healing and truth if you pray and meditate on his passion you are there as salvation comes to you especially at the mass you are physically there pope benedict said when you're at the mass the roof of the church opens and heaven and earth ascend and descend and sacred time time of eternity is united with historical time tick tock on our watch time and it's united and you are there do you know that's why christ is alive in both scripture and the mass it's the living word not the words recorded of a dead man it's a living word in the scriptures and the living body in the mass how can you get more than that john paul two even said the rosary mystically transports us to the side of mary it's more than just reciting hail mary's it's being mystically transported to the side of mary as she recalls the mysteries of christ because she was there for it all would better guide that's why we say to jesus through mary that's what marian consecration is mary guiding us to jesus all right last paragraph so remember jesus starts with being god then he goes to being our savior then he goes to being a man then he goes to being a friend then he goes to being our spouse for all eternity many weddings happened in the bible many references you know the song of songs is about a woman waiting for her groom did you know jesus's first miracle was at a wedding adam fell asleep and his bride was created from his side jesus too fell asleep into a deep sleep on the cross and his bride the church came from his side when he was pierced and the blood and the water flowed out from his side wow jesus said that he will go to prepare a house for us in heaven where does that come from a jewish man always went to build a house for his future bride to show that he could provide for her only then was the marriage consummated the bible is about bride and groom so we will wed to god in heaven one day but it starts here today at the mass consummation at this holy altar as you come up as the bride as in any wedding who's there to meet you at the altar the groom and what happens the groom enters into you the bride so therefore do catholics have a personal relationship with jesus that's all that matters all this other stuff you said father chris doesn't matter in the least all you need is a personal relationship with jesus okay we just finished right there because when you received holy communion you now have jesus inside of you you now have him dwelling in your soul and you can't get a more personal relationship than having someone dwell in your soul amen amen alleluia hallelujah god bless all of you for sticking with us you know we are so happy to have you members of our marian family i i have such joy when i read the comments and i see people saying this is our family we had no idea when the coronavirus happened that god would bring this kind of greater good many of you coming back to your faith understanding your faith and you cannot love what you do not know and so by helping know your faith better you're loving your faith better praise be to jesus christ be a part of our miriam family by joining us every saturday here this is live but also mark father brother mark could show the last slide being a mirian helper it's very simple go to mic prayers dot com and there takes less than 10 seconds there's no cost it just unites us in prayer so that you can receive the graces of all our prayers penances masses rosaries just like you were a mirian of the immaculate conception god bless all of you and we hope to see you next week as we talk about who god the father is and who this god of the old testament is believe it or not he is a god of mercy and let us ask this heavenly father to come down upon us this week to guide us bless us and protect us and we ask all this through christ our lord amen and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen why be a marian helper because we mary and father celebrate a mass for you and all our members each and every day you can share in all the prayers good works and merits of all the miriam priests and brothers around the world and now you can share the graces just as if you were a marian priest or brother every all souls day we see a mass for all the deceased members of the association of marian helpers again there's no way that after we die we can help ourselves but we have to rely on the prayers of those here on earth and we members of the marian fathers will be praying for you as a deceased member of our association you can share in the graces of the perpetual novena to the divine mercy remember jesus told saint faustina that the chaplet of divine mercy is one of the most powerful prayers we can make and every day here at the shrine of divine mercy we pray it and you can share in those graces so if you have any questions or you want to learn more how to be a marian helper please visit micprayers.com or call 1-800-462-7426 and let me personally pray for you and your loved ones thank you and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, faustina, fr. alar, Mass, marian helpers, jesus, old testament, new testament, sacrifice, eucharist, holy communion, trinity, holy trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Creator, redeemer, sanctifier, three in one, One God three persons, consubstantial, begotten, Holy Trinity, first person, second person, third person, john 17, begetting

Id: 6CGAqOLQvcQ

Length: 86min 28sec (5188 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 05 2020