Father Spitzer’s Universe - 2018-12-05 -

[Music] [Music] welcome once again to father Spitzer's universe I'm Doug Keck your host we're here located at the intersection of faith and reason on Mother Angelica Way in Irondale Alabama where it all began back in 1981 led by our foundress Mother Angelica and her great vision and as always we depend on the feedback of our audience to keep the show lively and moving ahead so send us your emails check us out on Facebook send us a tweet on Twitter and for all things that relate to the one and only father Spitzer you can go to the Magister comm and now you could also check out even more information at credible catholic comm for those of us who are looking for some more basic information that's what we're actually following throughout on the program as we speak and we'll be talking more about credible catholic and one of the topics about our Lord coming up shortly you know just a reminder it's now the first week of admin so let's prepare for the coming of our Lord be sure to check out our updated Advent television programming on our web site ewtn.com all the latest Advent programming coming your way we also have that wonderful set of mother Angelica's wisdom the book coming up as well as father Leo Clifford's book and father Leo cliff it's the new book but this one as you see there's father Leo Clifford I got to add everybody in that book is the new book that just came out and you know people have been watching EWTN for years just I've always loved his TV reflections this is a new addition all those reflections put into prints he has some great great insights and of course great insights as well from our own Mother Angelica and this is the kind of book as the last one and this one is really perfect for Christmas I have to tell you check out EWTN religious catalogue it's the wisdom of Mother Angelica if you've gotten the gift of her wisdom you should pass this along to your family and friends they deserve it and it's our obligation to always pass on what we've been given that scriptural and a father will tell us all about it as we turn once more to the west coast and welcome father Robert Spitzer how are you father great to see you I'm talking today about Jesus's revelation about God his father and learning about that but first let's get started with a prayer maybe you want to think of the passing of our ex-president as well you bet in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen Heavenly Father we give you thanks at the beginning of this Advent season help us through your Holy Spirit to prepare ourselves for the coming of your son ever more deeply into our hearts and into our lives help us Lord to follow him and help us truly in following him to share that with others we ask you to send your holy spirit down upon Doug and myself our whole audience this day so that everything that we say and do will be brought to fruition in your will for the good of your kingdom your church and your people we also ask Lord that you bless the whole Bush family this day and and we give you thanks for the very good President George HW Bush and all that he has meant and done for this country and we ask all of these things through Jesus our Lord amen amen and Mary seat of wisdom pray for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen right as we come up on Our Lady's Day December 8th coming up shortly as well if you're watching the show live as we are doing it right now so let's get to some questions before we talk about our topic do your father Spitzer this one just came in the other day I a non Catholic friend found EWTN on TV at random last week and father Spitzer show was on my friends says he was surprised to hear father Spitzer's say that the Catholic Church invented the concepts of heaven and hell in order to keep the faithful in wine through fear I know what channel he was watching on earth it was yours or our show hold on I told my friend he must have heard father incorrectly please back me up this is Tim from Tempe Arizona obviously the incorrect yeah I hate to say this but I said nothing of the kind and I have no idea where he would have gotten that from but it was certainly not me and I certainly wouldn't have made a statement anywhere near that the concepts of heaven and hell of course you know Jesus who reinforces them there is a sense of that in some of the Pharisee achill literature certainly and some of the intertestamental literature prior to Jesus which he probably was very much aware of but Jesus had his own very well-defined notion of heaven and hell and he talked about it not to induce fear but he talked about it because it was the truth and because he knew the power of human freedom to choose you know contrary to God to choose contrary to love to choose contrary to our own best interest and so he told us the truth and he allows us in our freedom to make good judgments and of course he also tells us as we'll be discussing later in this program he tells us that his father is unconditionally merciful and that he will forgive us if we come to him was sincerely with repentance and especially in in case of serious sin that we come to him in the sent through the sacrament of confession but that's what you know I think is the doctrine of Jesus Christ that the church has proclaimed faithfully certainly not to induce fear and so but you know if you do have an appropriate fear that you're choosing wrongly and that you're choosing against your own best interest in your choosing darkness and despair then of course that fear is a good an appropriate fear but that's not the reason Jesus did it the reason Jesus did it was for our own good according to the truth that he knew from his father which is the truth itself well it's interesting too cuz bringing that up I first I was thinking maybe he was reading a Jack Chick book or a pamphlet or watching his TV show or one of those like something he would have gotten out of there actually but a little cartoon next to it but that being said the point you made it struck me that what you said was Jesus said it even though it might have bothered people there's other things in scripture because it was true it seems to be sometimes in the world today and even inside the church that we're reticent to say thing that are true because we're concerned about how people will feel about what we're saying when we've got to say it's not a question of trying to give you a hard time it's a question of talking reality right absolutely and you know I can't emphasize enough that we do have to talk about the truth and and today you know if you say anything about the sixth commandment it's almost like you're you're put on a rail out of the culture but I must tell you you know there is a darkness you know with respect to adultery a darkness with respect to pornography a darkness with respect to sexual infidelity and that darkness if we don't contend with it if we don't you know stop it in its tracks we are inviting evil into our lives and in for the good of our own soul for the good of getting out of the darkness we have to contend with it now of course are we going to make mistakes yes are we going to fail yes there you know can we count upon God's unconditional merciful love yes if it's really you know a sin that that is mortally sinful and we confess it can we count on his love yes you know all these things are true but we have to contend with it and now sometimes I agree you know we have to be like little st. Thomas More's right we have to remember whatever is received as received in the manner of the receiver so sometimes instead of coming after somebody who's got a sixth commandment especially that commandment in this culture well there are other ones too right I mean I mean all the the the deadly sins are around but I think greed and you know sexual immorality are really problematic and in a big way and probably envy but but the main thing that I want to say is sometimes you have to find a diplomatic way to do it and so you know I always try to to turn to two things you know that show you know if you keep proceeding down this route there's going to be some really destructive things that are going to happen in your life and then when those self-destructive things take place you're gonna start destroying other people's lives there's something wrong here and and so I take that more minor tack I don't say you know if you keep this up you're gonna allow the devil into your life so strongly that you'll probably wind up following him right into the dark darkness of Hell because you think that this is true happiness and you don't want to do that now I would save that for the trump card but in the meantime I would say you know I would ask the person straight out you know if it were a sixth commandment thing or or a greed thing I'd say do you really think that this is good for you hmm do you really think at the end of the day that doing this is is somehow good and and you know most people know there's something wrong with pornography they know there's something wrong with kind of a promiscuity now they may try to justify it but I just you know would ask the authentic question do you really think that this is good for you do you really think that this is helping you to get closer to God and and if you really wanted to pull out another stop and you really had a good relationship with this person where they wouldn't think that you were trying to moralize you know and so forth then I would probably say do you think that this could possibly be opening the door to Satan and other evil spirits to come into your life now if you think that that that question might go too far that they might think you're kind of moralizing on them or that you know they go Satan and evil spirits okay Spitzer's crazy okay so you know then hold back a little bit and until you're ready to pose that question you don't have to pose everything what you need to do is get people thinking and if you can get people thinking with it just a poignant kind of not overly pushy question like you know do you really think that this is good for you do you really think there's no harm here you really think that this is going to actually you know help you in the long run you really think this is going to help your relationships with other people do you really think that this is really going to help you know other people who are connected to you and rely on you if not mm-hmm then follow the Lord Jesus Christ in his teaching because he never gave us any teaching that wasn't good for us good for the people around us and would not shut down the door to the evil spirit who wants to bring us over to his side of the equation right and so the whole point that you know you know is you know you know how far you can kind of go without you know getting a person go oh I give up you know or forget it you know you don't want to produce that reaction you just want to get them thinking and then just say you know if you want to follow up on this at any time you ought to follow up because there's a lot of consequences here but you know why don't you just think about it and you know if you've got some questions come back to me because it's an open door you know and and I'm not judging you mm-hmm I just want to I want to ask you the questions so that you can see is this gonna be good for for me and for the people who rely on me and are connected to me is this going to be good for them and so if we can kind of get that out in the most diplomatic way we want you know that's great now if you have a great relationship with a person right and you they trust you then you could actually say you know do you think that this could just open the door - darkness and evil in your own life and do you think that by doing this he's going to bring you over to his side and if you do I think that then out of sheer fear for you know of him you know that the devil then you got to get back and listen to our Lord and follow him all right and that kind of fits into a little bit of the prodigal sons story I want to ask you about later yeah here's another question dear father Spitzer well these people are watching the show here this person writes recently you said that those who don't know the truths of the faith are less culpable than the faithful do you mean that millions of of nuns meaning not religious nuns but people with no faith are oh no religion are protected from damnation since they can claim ignorant at their final judgement if so and this is a question you hear on and off all through the years why evangelize these folks if their knowledge of the group would increase their culpability and their risk of it to her life please explain God bless from John from New Jersey hey John from New Jersey that's a really good question and of course the reason that we want to evangelize is because the more that people know the less likely they will be to you know argue culpable ignorance and and you're you know you've got a good little syllogism going there except for there's one little problem with it and that is you know the whole area of culpable ignorance can compete all you know stay away from the faith culpably you know and that means can they stay away from the faith knowing you know that there's something there that they should be paying attention to but that they're not gonna pay attention to it you know and and somehow you know that they might you know be you know given a greater you know consideration when they get to their particular judgment and and the answer is no you can't do that because your culpably ignorant now you know and know if you're not culpably ignorant i mean if you're just plain ignorant right so in other words let's suppose you grew up in a country or in an area of the world where you know Jesus is just really not there it's not even part of the spectrum you know of course we want to evangelize those people but as the Second Vatican Council not me as the Second Vatican Council says people like that can inherit the kingdom of God and of course they can through of course Jesus's passion death and resurrection so you know Jesus can in fact do that if they're trying to follow God you know according to what they know trying to follow their conscience as best it has been developed now let's move beyond that for a second and we have a person who has some familiarity with Jesus and maybe grew up even in a Christian family but has just ignored it over all the years then they're culpably ignorant for a you know really ignoring something that they knew even you know the Holy Spirit is constantly prodding constantly you know saying you know you know there's something here you've got to go back but if people are really ignoring it then there is culpability there and they can be held responsible for him so of course we want to evangelize them because part of evangelization is helping them not to be culpably ignorant for ignoring the lord of truth and the lord of love who is trying to hand us on a silver platter our salvation through freedom so the idea you know I think your syllogism is very you know if if I were a great student I would have been proud to have submitted a syllogism like that look the only problem is it leaves you wide open to culpable ignorance for you know ignoring a knowingly ignoring the faith you know that that somebody had exposed you to the other thing of course too is you know there can be culpable ignorant at the time that something is going on and you know and again you know I'm not the judge I'm not the Lord you know I don't know the heart of anybody but John you know at the time when somebody is committing an action like let's say you know abject promiscuity let's just just say that for you know because it's a this is big in our culture right now and you're tempted to say that's not so important now you know did the culture really influence this guy to believe that it wasn't so important you know did the culture really get to him to the point where you know he's not just rationalizing he really doesn't think it's that important I don't know I have to read his heart you know but I do know you know that that these things are you know you know have to be they are considered by God and and you know God's his judgment is not simple it's not like okay here are the number of things you did okay I'm sorry you know it doesn't add up right you're going to hell goodbye I mean God has a heart right and of course he's trying to judge our hearts through his all-knowing art and so you know the whole area of culpable ignorance versus rationalization versus you know real ignorance you know this is all you know it you know God takes us into consideration I don't but I do know one thing the safest path by far is to evangelize a person and tell them when they evangelize when you evangelize them look if you fail if you you know fall down if you do something contrary to God's will you know whatever it may be as is you know and you know from your Christian faith then I would say go to the Lord you know you know in in sincere repentance and and if it's you know a serious sin that you did with sufficient reflection and you did it with full consent of the will that is to say with no impediments to the free use of your will that would be a mortal sin and you should go to confession and confess it so that's the main thing but evangelization is always the safest course you know I mean it's like saying I'm not going to teach my kids you know not to cross the street I'm figuring that everybody who's coming down the street will be watching for kids you know crossing the street without looking both ways you know I mean just teach them don't look both ways before you cross the street of course we want to evangelize them it's the safest way and the safest way is the best way don't let people just go away right and I think on one level a those of us and we're gonna have a question about faith coming up right after who've been given the gift of faith we can't bury it like in the the parable of the talents act li that's not what we're giving it for we're supposed to multiply it first so we're gonna be held accountable ourselves yes absolutely you know yeah whether we are sharing or not sharing the other thing is that those of us would like believe we're not culpable at certain times because of our invincible ignorance need to realize that though we can fool the priest and our friends we can't fool God he knows what we know absolutely and that that's very very true and that's the whole you know thing of take the safest way you know and and by the way anytime you ignore the faith you know anytime you don't even July's you leave that person wide open to have to have the devil have a field day with them right and and believe me the minute they begin to ignore the faith the minute they begin to rationalize on the basis of the culture the minute they begin to do these things I'm telling you the evil spirit is right there I mean he's on it like a great salesman and and he's not going to come and scare you he's gonna come and justify everything make it feel oh so good and that you're just oh so right and that you know somehow you know that the church has been oh so wrong and and and that Jesus has been you know you know just as it was oh so wrong and believe me he's very very tricky and persuasive so best way evangelize a person they're not left open to the the trickery of the devil they're not left open to that darkness and of course they have the safest path to their authentic salvation the authentic use of their freedom which in the end is what will bring us into the light of God forever okay let's get to that next question and I alluded to about faith dear father Spitzer faith is said to be a gift from God and I have had faith as long as I can remember my brother the hand does not have faith and says I am quote-unquote lucky how do you explain that only some are given the gift of faith how do those individuals who do not or have not been given this gift develop faith in their life missus from Rene Rene it this is related to the other two questions that we just got and and here's the thing is of course God gives everyone the gift of faith right so there's so that's you know that's the gift he gives and what is that gift consists in it consists in you know God Himself being present in our very very being and in in that being I mean to our souls and he is calling us to himself so if you go back to your own childhood you're gonna see Rene that you had a sense of good and evil you know you're gonna have you're gonna see that you had a sense that there was evil out that you know you might have said it it's the boogeyman or you might have said write it whatever about evil and you might have said that God is good and that God will protect me and you may have done in a very almost infantile way but you knew you absolutely knew you had that sense interiorly the other thing is you probably did have a sense of you know God being present in you and to you and and you might notice that he's inviting me ever more deeply into himself that's an adult statement but you might have a thought of God as a friend and you might have a shot protection from God or sensed the goodness of God or sense that the goodness that's in your parents was similar to the goodness of God and and you could even distinguish you know when you just got a little older toward adolescence and you discovered that Santa Claus was you know a mythical you could basically go oh you know I I knew that Santa Claus was just you know it was a myth but I also knew that there was something more real about God all these things you know God's presence to you that that's there and then with some evangelization as I'm sure your your brother got some evangelization will really help you write to to put you know meat on those bones right and and so all of a sudden you you begin to see things now some people you know they have difficulty you know affirming that and and part of the the task of evangelization is to get over needless hurdles so that's why I created the center called the magis Center and now this you know this website called credible Catholic com one of the major reasons that people can't make that leap is is you know into belief to affirm what God has been saying to them in their hearts since they were little kids they believed when they were little kids but they got to adolescents and suddenly they go oh my gosh you know I can't do it anymore if it's an evidence problem we can solve this I mean there's enough evidence to kill a horse and so all I'm begging you to do is go to credible Catholic com show that to your brother who claims that he doesn't have any faith and just say please look at this evidence start with the seven essential modules if he wants footnotes if he wants equations if he wants logic send them to the big book it's all free of charge but evidence evidence we have there should be no reason why a person can't say at the end of looking at all this evidence from near-death experiences from the Shroud of Turin from all the physical scientific evidence that's come out of late from the Philip new philosophical proofs for the existence of God I mean there's just a mound of it from 20th century 21st century contemporary scientifically validated miracles there's a ton of it now if you can't say at the end of that that there's enough evidence you don't have to say you know I have absolutely convincing evidence or that's all I will accept if that's the reason then there's another motive but if you can't say at the end of reading all this oh my gosh there's enough evidence there's a preponderance of evidence that at least forms some kind of Foundation for me upon which to say you know it's rationally and reasonably and and and responsibly justifiable to believe not only in God but in Jesus Christ you know and in my own soul in the church if you can't say that you know with some degree of certainty then I would be stunningly surprised of course you can throw things anything into question but it's the reason why you're throwing something into question if you have good scientists who are talking about this if you have a reasonable expectation you know that there really is fine-tuning let's say in the universe or a reasonable expectation that you do have a trans physical soul which will survive bodily death there a reasonable expectation you know that there is you know you know evidence of the resurrection on the Shroud of Turin or a reasonable expectation you know that all these miracles that have taken place and are scientifically validated at Lourdes you know that there really are a miraculous some kind of a divine occurrence hey enough I mean enough is enough all we need is a reasonable and responsible you know expectation with really solid evidence to ground our leap and that can be taken care of but that's an evangelization problem we got to get them to the website and we got to say sit down with me I'll watch it with you I don't want you just to be alone I want to talk to you about this evidence you know and just watch it and if he says whoa wait a minute what's the equation then take them to the big book and say I don't get this equation but you'll probably get this equation you read this or wait a minute you know what's the study where's the words the you know all the footnotes and you just say I'll just take you to module two of the big book and here you can read it and you'll probably understand these studies better than me but that's enough there's a second reason though why people can can can not make the leap and that's because there's something inside of them these are the a choice now if like I said if it's got to do with why would an all loving God allow suffering or evidence for God or the soul or Jesus or the church take care of that by just sending them to credible athlete calm that's not good if there's another reason and you get into some of those other reasons I also wanted to give you an opportunity to say you certainly believe in Saint Nicholas right I mean we're and and if anybody has any concerns about father's opinion about Santa Claus they can direct those to the magic Center website as well and with that we're going to take a break I'm Doug Keck here in the heart of father Spitzer's universe I think I saw Santa's sled go by just as we were moving through the universe and we'll be back with much more right after this Thanks [Music] and welcome once again as we continue on with father Spitzer's universe as we move through time and space talking about Jesus's revelation about his father and also our Father and with that being said well join our own father here on the set which is father robert spitzer was out there on the west coast once more and father let's talk about the topic in credible Catholic that website where if people have comments they can send them to you directly we have this one talking about Jesus's Proclamation now you say here Jesus taught his disciples to the crowd in his own familiar Semitic way he did not speak in the logical conceptual discourse of the Greek culture what do you mean by that mm-hmm yeah I mean Jesus of course was Jewish and he spoke been he was raised in in the Jewish culture and he spoke from within the categories of that culture now we know that the the early church right away because the missionary church went right into the whole Hellenistic and Roman world you know it basically took on you know these Greek categories and these Greek ways of thinking and and brought it immediately to the church in Asia Minor and then of course brought it into the whole Roman Empire and now during Jesus's time however we can see very clearly that he talks precisely like a Jewish person would talk to a Jewish audience and his audience was mostly Jewish yes he would go up into tyre and sidon and some of these areas where you were likely to get some people you know who had you know Sarah Phoenicians or Greek background and and so you you know he related to them but the vast majority of his audience was Jewish so what's like Jewish you know for example when you when you look at you know the let's say you know just splitting you know mind and heart but the Jewish people just didn't do that they didn't have a category where you got feelings over here and he got mental concepts over there the Greeks of course do and they talk about abstraction in that way and later on we see st. Paul who was given a Greek education does do that but not Jesus he basically you know sees things with that integration of mind and heart we see also for example when Jesus makes this revelation about himself he says you know he's praying to the Father right and he says father you have graciously willed it so you know no one you know everything has been given over to me by my father and no one knows the the the Father except the Son and and excuse me no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the son wishes to reveal him now that word no in Greek that just has a conceptual meaning whereas that word no in in in Hebrew or Aramaic and that culture means to know with the heart to be connected with to be linked with to be a part of so I mean he's basically saying I'm connected to the Father as the father's connected to me I know the father in my heart like the father knows me and now when you're making a claim like that you're making a claim to divinity he's not just saying I've got some conceptual knowledge of God he's really saying I know the heart of God and so that's that's a you have to be aware of how he is speaking and of course when you're speaking in parables for example that's a very somatic way of speaking I mean Jesus is really a parable user much more than than other Jewish writers and prophets and intertestamental and Old Testament literature Jesus really does use parables more than anything and and that's almost unique to jeez it's not totally unique but almost unique to Jesus whereas other prophets are more likely to use allegory and things of that nature but the point is it's still a Jewish way of dealing with things you tell a story you make an analogy you make a parable and and and that's that's how you get the point across because point for the Jewish people was to hit the heart first let the mind follow whereas in the Greek culture the point is to hit the mind first and let the heart follow now here you know in our culture I have to tell you we're more like a Greek culture so so essentially you know I always would say it this way intellectual conversion most of the time in this culture we'll have to proceed religious conversion and religious conversion will have to precede moral conversion now I don't mean religious conversion in the sense of a parent educating their child about religion of course you want to do this from the time that they're you know with three months old you want to be educating them about their religion about God you know this is the most important function you know that a parent has is to watch out for the salvation of their children and so if they have any faith at all you have to do this now the point I'm trying to get to is when they get to an ad to the age of adolescence when they're capable of making decisions about their faith the very thing we were just talking about you know that that conversion of you know taking the faith that I've been given in my heart by God the faith I've been given by my church and my parents taking that and affirming that and then living according to it in this culture you really have to worry about intellectual conversion first that is the same getting evidence for God your trans physical soul for Jesus and for the church you've got to show the supernatural origin of this if you don't do it then problems are gonna arise for people in this culture it's just going to happen because they're getting constantly pounded by the culture constantly pounded in their college classes and constantly pounded even in their their seventh and eighth grade classes they're being already challenged so you have to do that and that's why credible Catholic is there what are the seven essential modules for it's all about intellectual conversion answering the big questions giving the required evidence it's all about doing this because if you don't answer questions even about evolution even about aliens you know even about the Higgs boson called the god particle it says if you're not given intelligent and really truthful answers you know according to you know you know what the culture is saying you're gonna lose the kid just on the basis of evidence alone then you go from intellectual conversion to religious conversion because you can't just stop any just okay I believe in God okay you know I believe that Jesus Christ probably rose from the dead okay now you got to say well what are you gonna do about it and of course you can't let the person just say well I'm gonna read the scriptures and I'm gonna follow Jesus that's good I would never discourage that you read the scriptures and you follow Jesus but I'm gonna tell you something right now it's not as easy as you think you can't just go out and read the scriptures there are a hundred interpretations for most passages of Scripture and believe me in the history of religions we you know from you know you know the earliest days of Catholicism of all the heresies and all the various you know even you know with the Protestant Reformation all the proliferation surgeries I mean how did you get thirty thousand churches present churches in five hundred years because of different interpretations of Scripture it's not self-evident and so the point that we do we have to get to is you got to tell look if the Catholic Church if there's supernatural justification for the Catholic Church if you see this in these miracles of Lourdes if you see this in these Eucharistic miracles that are right there incredible Catholic calm go to module five on basis I'm begging you just go go to the big book module five just look at those miracles just take a look and just see for yourself it's it's is they're not supernatural warrant for the Catholic Church of course go to the exegesis of the Matthew passage which we take very seriously Matthew 16:18 about that you know see Peter etc but the point I'm trying to get to is this intellectual conversion is really necessary once you get there and if you believe that the Catholic Church has supernatural warrant there it is in these miracles for these Saints you know that there they are and these miracles of Lourdes or Fatima there they are in these you miracles then then you have to get participate in a church the church is gonna help you interpret Scripture when I was a kid even in college I knew oh my gosh I could come up with three different interpret a tree that's because I was very unclear days I now know I could have come up with at least 25 you know for you know for a lot of these controversial passages and then you put them in the context of other paths and you're just swimming in a sea of you know Sola scriptura you better have a church out there that can help you ferret you know these ways so you have to get them participating in the church and and and the first thing is you know to get them you just can't read the scripture you have to get an interpretation in the scriptures by a body that has been given supernatural warrant by Jesus himself and that would be the Catholic Church and then once they're there you have to tell him about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist start of course with the the you know like this Eucharistic miracle overseen by Pope Francis in Argentina in 1998 did you start there you know and that's a good starting place and and then just work your way up to what is the Eucharist mean and you can get it all and you know module I hate to tell you this but of module number six of the big book there you will find it all and and there's a big explanation of the Holy Eucharist too and in module number 9 where I have a whole you know thing to you know you know on it in in the big book the sacramentality and what did Jesus intend in the Eucharist etc and that's you go to the credible Catholic com go to the big bull and go to module 9 it's all there but the point is start receiving the Eucharist knowingly and sincerely and I'm telling you the minute you start doing this there's going to be supernatural Grace's that are going to affect you the spirits going to be starting to speak strongly through you you can't do this on your own you need the sacraments you need the sacrament of confession the Holy Eucharist and you absolutely need the church that can guide you through these these these these really complicated you know issues of Scripture and you're going to need community of believers that can help reinforce you in your pathway and good pastors that can do this and are integral to that community leaders of that community you got to go to religious conversion and the religious conversion through the Catholic Church and then then moral conversion can really happen because once you have the truth of the church once you have the sacrament of confession once you have the Holy Eucharist then changing you know as Paul st. Paul says it's a big issue of going from the old man to the new man it's a big issue going from you know that you know what I would call the the lower self to the higher self it's not easy you need help you need the truth you need the sacraments you need the community but if you have those things then implementing a technique like st. Ignatius of Loyola examine prayer which really helps in moral conversion that is really a smart way to go and and if you just again if you if you don't mind just going you know to credible Catholic calm and going to modular 17 just get that examine prayer and just start using it but of course we have in this culture it is not that easy you've got to go from intellectual conversion the spiritual conversion or moral conversion and and what the only reason I say that is because we're Greeks you know getting back to the question we we just take abstraction and we take logic and we take scientific method really seriously we can't ignore it send them through the intellectual conversion after they're adolescents give them the evidence then make sure that they're participating in that church and tell them why and then when it gets to moral conversion they're gonna be so fortified against evil and they're gonna have so many graces to pursue the good that really they can begin that arduous trek toward the new man and it's gonna be tough but without a church I mean let's face it everybody who's watching this audience where would we be without the church where would I be without the church I mean honestly I would have rationalized myself right into hell I'm you know I just don't trust myself you know and and frankly the more intelligent and creative you are the better you are at rationalization I'm telling you so the point I'm yeah enough you always go to the credible Catholic website - and double-check that in the big book so so let me ask you this question as you talked about with God is love and that's the revelation God the Father etc and we talked about hey Bob we've talked over the years about people kind of general idea the idea Jesus address of God in this intimate way is exceedingly unusual so much so that for several decades it was thought unique to Jesus himself I thought yeah and now I'm reading here you say quite recently some rare instances of rabbinical use have ever have been found did that impact your way your view of Christ use of it no not at all because honestly those rare uses you know were not even in the culture during Jesus's time and his view of Abba which is you know that affectionate intimate loving father lean trustworthy God that view of Abba right which is kind of defined in the father of the prodigal son parable right that view of Abba is really unique to Jesus and its unique to Jesus in the history of religions the idea of God being unconditional now the term Abba might have been used by some of the rabbis but it certainly was not used in the same way it was used by Jesus or Jesus is actually saying that Abba is you know portrayed by the father of the prodigal son so that's a really interesting deal there and once you've you've got that then all of a sudden you say okay I can count on God even in times of abject failure it's never too late everything Jesus says about coming at the ninth hour and expecting and and you know and receipt ly not expecting and receiving the same pay you know that that of course stunned everybody you know when he said that but he said that's who God is if he takes the repentance center and he brings them as fast as he can right up to the point where they can start pursuing their salvation with him through him and that the point I'm trying to get to is boy I am so glad to know that God is unconditionally loving and that he's going to really forgive me in the sacrament of confession you know and then he's really going to you know when I turned to him sincerely and say Lord you know I've sinned against you and I no longer deserve to be called your son or I say like the The Good Thief you know remember me when you come into your kingdom or when I say like that you know the the tax collector in the back of the temple have mercy on me for I am a sinful man that I think that God is actually not only going to have mercy but want to have mercy and then not only give me mercy but help heal me so that I can and and lead me so that I can move into the future that doesn't mean you can escape responsibility of course you know you have to try and improve your life and try to make things better and if you don't don't worry the Holy Spirit's gonna bug you because the Holy Spirit doesn't want to leave you open to Satan or to any evil spirit the Holy Spirit's gonna bug you he's gonna bug you at 3 o'clock in the morning he's gonna bug you during your dreams he's gonna keep you no needling you and needling you and you've got to do some work and here's a little bit of guilt and here's a little bit of fear and I'm gonna keep needling you until finally you wake up one day and go I think I got to do something about this well you know that without thinking in terms of you know the workers in the field the last hour and I'm just ask your opinion I mean I think some of us you know and we talked about the older brother kind of opinion on some of these things as well that comes up you know whether we'll get to that this week because of so much in the prodigal son to talk about especially today since it's been used as a popular image but the idea is it's not as if our Lord went to these people and said gee will you want to come and work and they said no we're gonna hang around for seven hours and we'll show up at the eighth hour and then you'll pay a little today it didn't you know I mean that's what I think a lot of us in our world today think oh that's what you can do you can just say well God's gonna be all merciful so I'll wait around to the last hours and let me in after I had a good time in between and I'll just show one but it doesn't work that way because we know about the others because there's other aspects of scripture where you talk about being prepared for the bridegroom and all these other things you just can't show up no I totally agree and and you know you know the point I'm trying to get to is you should respond to the call when you get the call right when the Holy Spirit's needling you when you feel the emptiness within you when you feel that you know that that kind of a darkness or kind of despair within you when you feel that that you know that you know that we shouldn't be feeling that well of course if you're clinically depressed ignore what I'm saying because that that's a different matter but if you're not clinically depressed and you're feeling this emptiness this despondency this self alienation this not being at home with yourself or in the world and you're feeling this on a regular basis you know something is amiss if you're waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning trying to ignore guilt feelings and feeling like you better take another drink you know and I mean a alcoholic drink just to calm things down there's something in this if you have to go out every night and party Harty with you you know just pounding the stuff down there's something amiss and and of course it's it's telling you something so you have to respond to the call when you get the call I mean that's the whole point and and God is going to keep calling you and calling you he's not going to give up on you right but he is going to keep calling you but you have to respond and when you get it you know don't waste any time we're talking about your salvation here and we're talking about your ability to lead others to their eternal salvation here this is not kid stuff you got to respond you can't put it off it's so urgent you want to just say I got to get on it and I got to get on it now you know if somebody said to you hey listen I'm gonna give you a million diamonds example here this salvation is worth a lot more than a million bucks but the point I'm trying to get to is somebody came up to to a person and even in a materialistic culture and said hey I'm gonna give you a million bucks but you got to fill out this piece of paper what do you what are the odds you're gonna say uh you know I'll get to it later right you know you're gonna take the piece of paper and fill it out you're gonna do it you know and and you're gonna get your million dollars right and so the point of course I'm trying to say is salvation is so much more important than that you know get it done respond now do it as sincerely as you can and believe me God's unconditional love he's gonna sweep you up into it and even if there's just been a whole lifetime full of craziness and darkness that first confession is the main deal don't let the evil spirit talk you out of it don't let yourself rationalize yourself out of it go to that confession just do it you know and once it's done then try to get a regular routine for going to Mass and for a little bit of prayer you don't have to you know do everything at once but just try to get that routine of mass and prayer in there and you know then you know start participating more and more in the church start increasing the prayer time a little bit more and I'm telling you things will change right and and you know enough set right and then go can and we'll talk more about the the parable of the prodigal son but one of the things to talk about it's the idea in the Semitic culture a name is not merely a linguistic label and designation of a particular person as it might be in Western culture talk about it being a definition of the individual like in the case of Peter as rock why is that a man yeah because the name Abba so what we're doing in this part of credible Catholic is looking at the three major ways that Jesus spoke about the unconditional love of the Father and one of the ways is the term he uses to address the Father namely Abba the second way is is you know that he he puts love as the highest commandment which means since the right since the rabbi's believed that that Torah reflected the heart of God well if the entire law and the prophets as well is summed up in this one highest commandment to love that reflects the heart of the Father love is the heart of the Father and the third way of course is is consumed at revelation that comes in luke's gospel in the father of the prodigal son so those are the three ways that Jesus really does now he talked about the love of the father in many other contexts but these are three really important ways and and so when we get to ABBA that name Abba Jesus didn't just choose this he's a Semite and and of course the name really reflects who the person is just like Peter is rock or you know his originally much Simon Jesus changes it to chaos right near make which of course gets translated into Petra in Greek or Peter in English right when he changes his name holy mackerel you know that's a change in nature and of course Jesus chooses very assiduously the name ABBA that's you know daddy this this affectionate gentle loving trustworthy you know little kids view of the thought of his own father chooses that name which you know be speaks the unconditional love of a father you know the understanding love of a father right he chooses that name because it represents the essence the nature the heart of who God is and so that's you know really really important and anytime Jesus gives a name you know sons of thunder whatever it is it's reflecting the nature and essence of the person themselves so it's really important and by the way there's only what you'd have to be so super important right in a person's life to be able to change a person's name I mean you know the whole idea of did Jesus actually change Peters name to rock of course he did who else would have ever had the authority besides his parents to change the name given by the parents you know it's it's of course indicative of Jesus particular culture I'm sure right now yeah and with that being said we're gonna have to put it to bed for this week in Advent next week we'll talk on the same topic of course but we really get into the whole prodigal son because there's a lot there to mind for us especially in different people uses two or ten different things in the gospel and sometimes using it for their own way of getting their perspective put forward so if you send us out with a prayer father oh yeah bless you please bow your heads and pray for God's blessing and may Almighty God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Abba the unconditional love of God the father of the prodigal son may he shine down upon you and inspire you and may you take his love and his direction and the impetus of his spirit and follow it always so that you may be guided and directed through your own free choices and actions into the fullness of his kingdom in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen very good thank you Father as always we shall see you next week and we hope to see all of you as well as we continue talking about the prodigal son just a reminder father Spitzer's resources ewtn religious catalogue has them all you can check out all those books many videos and check out his website as well and don't forget about mother's whole set on wisdom and I and also father Leo Clifford's new publication that's just out I'm Doug Keck here we shall see you next week as we venture once again into the intersection of faith and reason I'll be waving see you then [Music] Oh

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 56min 16sec (3376 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 05 2018