Fr. Casey Spiritual Battles #1 - CONF 213

I'll begin this conference with a reading from the Gospel of st. Matthew chapter 10 beginning in verse 34 jesus said to his apostles so not suppose that my mission on earth is to spread peace my mission is to spread not peace but division I have come to set of man at odds with his father a daughter with her mother daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law and short to make a man's enemies those of his own household whoever loves father or mother and son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me he will not take up his cross and come after me is not worthy of me he who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin Razi who brings himself to not for me discovers who he is the word of the Lord well st. Louie De Montfort and said that the preacher of Christ always comes forth to preach the Bible in one hand crucifix in the other while I should let you know I have asthma from time to time and maybe two or three weeks out of the year they're really flares up on me and this may be one of those weeks so I've got the crucifix in one hand I have the Bible and the other and the inhaler in my pocket and so by the grace of God I will and get through it so you say a prayer that I do pray to the Holy Spirit okay I'm going to begin here with a quotation from a column that appeared recently in the Washington Times this is a secular newspaper and the title of this article was Krista phobia the last fashionable hatred it's written by Jeffrey keuner and I have no idea who he is but it's a great column and I'll share with you because it's so true he says this Christianity is dying it was once the Bosch in a Western civilization now Christianity is a pitiful remnant of its former greatness across the West is in full retreat the sex abuse scandal has ravaged the Catholic Church the Anglican Church has been eviscerated losing members and record numbers many Protestant denominations are abandoning their beliefs in fervent missionary zeal embracing chic and environmentalism watered-down socialism as a cheap substitute for the traditional gospel Europe the ancient stronghold of Krishnam has been transformed into a secular neo-pagan culture for Europeans God is dead he's been replaced by materialist man the secular tidal wave is also hit an overwhelmed America since the 1960's the United States has been the victim of the sexual revolution that glorifies hedonism and personal liberation pornography abortion homosexuality promiscuity the AIDS epidemic soaring at a wedlock births skyrocketing divorce rates in the breakdown of the family these are the poisoned fruits of the Playboy philosophy MTV is in Jesus is out Christianity is gradually being purged from the public square the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed in courtrooms or classes prayer has been banished from public schools Christians are regularly mocked in movies and television taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize art that depicts Christ and obscene in unflattering ways anti-christian bigotry is the last fashionable hatred the same standards do not apply to Islam Christians however are an easy target they do not believe in Jihad or suicide bombing unlike radical Islamists they espouse the rule of law on human rights they accept persecution even state sanctioned persecution as part of their religious burden liberals realize that Christianity is a genuine religion of peace that is why they do not fear systematically spierig n't if Christians do not rise from their ideological apathy and man the barricades will be driven into the catacombs once again and with their defeat comes the end of our great Republic M quo I remember one time father Benedict Groeschel was preaching our annual community retreat was back in 2002 and he made the statement directed to the younger members in our community he said some of you here may live to see the end of this republic one of the fathers made the observation the way things are going farther Groeschel may live to see the end of this republic hmm it is said that every priest brings a little of his own background in the religious life with him certainly that is true in my case for better or for worse and since I come from a military background it is always easy for me to understand and describe things in military terms stories analogies and metaphors and I think that's entirely appropriate why well simply because when you read the sacred scriptures the writings of the fathers of the church church documents the lives the saints he find that they are loaded with military terminology terms like war battle combat weapons enemies strategies tactics victories defeats the Bible uses the words war and battle more than 400 times jesus said I came not to bring peace but a sword the sword meaning division the gospel itself is called a two-edged sword it cuts to the heart Pro it reveals what is hidden in the human heart we find the classic example of this in the writings of st. Paul his letter to the Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11 put on the armor of God and stand firm against the tactics of the devil for our battle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities with the powers of the world rulers of this present darkness with evil spirits in the heavens therefore put on the armor of God hold your ground stand fast hold of faith as a shield to stop the flaming arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of the Spirit the Word of God even st. arrays of Li Xue little flower the gentlest of souls use this kind of terminology in her writings for example when she wrote about her impending death as God taking her from the battlefield of life father Groeschel always said the spiritual life is a constant lifelong daily struggle it is the interior battle the war that goes on within every human soul remember the toughest opponent you'll ever have to overcome in the spiritual battle is the one you see in the mirror every morning hmm watch out for that one hmm that one is more dangerous to you then all the terror is put together st. Philip Neri used to make his morning offering say his morning prayer and said Lord beware of Philip watch out for Philip today he could betray you you see the soldier wages war in the natural order the Christian is intended by God to do battle in the supernatural order all of us each one of us is called to be a soldier of Jesus Christ by virtue of our confirmation too many of us have forgotten that so the gift of the Holy Spirit enables us obligates us and empowers us to be defenders of the faith don't ever think that kind of terminology is outdated my brothers and sisters I assure you it is not and it never will be and don't think that all this talk about being a soldier for Christ he's just a a guy thing a macho thing hmm seven the most outstanding soldiers for Christ that I've ever known that have been the holy women you know one of the most courageous tenacious audacious soldiers for Christ that I've ever known his mother Angelica hmm I remember one time Mother Angelica became embroiled in a controversy with a very influential powerful prelate in this country she had criticized on the air by name because of a pastoral letter that he had written that badly presented the church's theology the mass in the Holy Eucharist hmm and this prelate decided to come after her with a vengeance he gathered together his allies and the Episcopal see in this country those were like-minded he actually took his case to Rome he took his case to the Congregation for religious in Rome they prefect a powerful Cardinal there and then mother gathered together her allies in the Episcopal see in this country and she went the Rome and presented her case guess who one mother one yes she stood her ground she would not be intimidated but I was speaking to mother in the parlor one time when I was visiting there and I said to her mother I had heard that you'd said that before you let that I'll take control the network you burn it to the ground she said no no I never said that she said I said I blow the damn thing up my favorite story is about mother Teresa of Calcutta another great prayer warrior soldier for Christ in her own way one time mother Teresa was invited to go to Moscow to Russia to receive an award for humanitarian work the old Soviet communist government and mother reluctantly accepted the invitation not because she was seeking human praise or worldly honors but because she had tried for years to open a house for her missionaries of charity in Russia she could never do it the Communists would never get permission so my mother thought well maybe the Holy Spirit is opening a door for us here maybe this is the opportunity we were looking for she turned out to be right mother went to Moscow and the Soviets held this lavish awards ceremony and they invited world news organizations and mother gave a speech and during her speech she noticed that the communist translator on the other side of the stage was deliberately mistranslating her words turning her speech into a diatribe against the US Western capitalism and imperialism and war mongering in all the light so in front of everyone mother stopped interrupted her speech he walked across the stage stood in front of the translator should can finger at his face and said stop stop that is not what I said and you know it she said either you will translate my words correctly or I will walk out of here right now and all this will be over he got the message she walked back across the stage and finished her speech one was over one of the sisters with her said mother how did you know how did you know what he was saying you don't speak Russian mother said no I do not speak Russian but the Holy Spirit does Pope John Paul the second it will soon be canonized I believe his canonization will take place in October as it stands now once said in fact said many times that there is taking place today the greatest battle between good and evil that the world has ever known today brothers and sisters the church is fighting for her life the truth is under attack souls are hanging in the balance the outcome is a matter of life or death nothing less than that and I think what is so terrible about this battle is the fact that it seems like not one person and a thousand even seems to know that it's going on hmm this is a real war with real casualties there are physical casualties there are spiritual casualties there are the dead are the wounded there are the missing there are the dead more than 200 million people died in the wars the persecutions the man-made famines of the bloody 20th century so I Pope John Paul the second called it a century of Tears since the early 70s there have been an estimated 60 million abortions per year worldwide recently the Chinese diplomat said in an interview with an American journalist if their one-child policy which began in the 1970s has been a huge success he posts it but since the one-child policy began in China they estimate that more than 400 million babies have been aborted and he boasted that is greater than the population of the United States and of course the number of human lives snuffed out chemically microscopically snuffed out by a port of Haitian contraceptives is a number known to God alone there are the wounded book of Sirach says worst of all wounds is that of the heart everywhere there is the untold heartache of spouses who mourn a breakup of their marriages the destruction of family life the wounds inflicted by divorce adultery selfishness like a forgiveness pride egotism emotional instability substance abuse etc everywhere we find young people lost confused alienated uncatalyzed we are told that the rate is suicide among our young people has risen more than 300 percent in the last 15 years a recent report issued by the Centers for Disease Control is found an estimated one of every four teenage girls in America has at least one sexually transmitted disease everywhere we find the parents agonize over the fact that sons and daughters left the church abandon the faith we're all content live a bit chilly in mortal sin it is one thing to lose a loved one in time it is another thing to lose them an eternity and everywhere of course we find it be aged the elderly abandoned by their own families unwanted left to face the hardship of old age alone there are the missing parese an NBC News report tells us that going back 30 years there are now an estimated 38,000 missing persons throughout the u.s. majority of them they believe young women teenage girls children police believe that most are stranger abductions most of them are already dead they are the human sacrifices the blood sacrifices the pagan gods have lost the culture of death we've driven God out of our culture now we have a culture of death in his place now the concept the reality of spiritual warfare is the definitive teaching of the Catholic Church paragraph 407 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says this under the heading of a hard battle quote a doctrine of original sin closely connected with that a Redemption by Christ provides lucid discernment a man situation and activity in the world by our first parents in the devil is a quiet a certain domination over man even though man remains free this dramatic situation of the whole world which is in the power the evil one makes man's life a battle the whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat where the powers of evil stretching so our Lord tells us from the very dawn of history until the last day finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right and it is at great cost to himself and aided by God's grace that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity and quote the late father John harden the greatest dogmatic theologian this country has ever produced who his cause for canonization has now been introduced in Rome wrote some things just before he died I want to share with you here he said quote we are now engaged in a global conflict only heroic families will survive this war only heroic bishops only heroic priests will survive this global conflict between the powers of darkness the powers of light only heroic religious will be able to last only heroic men women and children will remain Catholics and Christians and followers of Christ in the new millennium where can we get the light and strength we need to remain spiritually alive in the modern world the sources are available they are constant humbled prayer and a frequent reception of the sacraments and devotion to Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist either we have recourse to the sources of divine grace available through prayer and the sacraments or we shall become casualties in the ongoing war between the followers of Satan and the followers of Jesus Christ I'll continue he said this also we are living in the most critical century in Christian history we must now exhaust ourselves to learn and live the faith speak write and teach it unless true and loyal Catholics have the zeal and the spirit of the early Christians unless they are willing to do what they did and pay the price that they paid it the days of America are numbered most basic need in the modern world is the evangelization of those who have not yet received the gospel and the realizations of so many deep Christianized cultures in our day that need is to proclaim the gospel to people in today's world who are more than ever in need of Christ and his teaching and must include Christ's teaching in the moral order moreover this evangelization must be supported by the holiness of life of those who proclaim the gospel in quote of course we are still in the midst of the year of faith in the church and in this year of faith we must also take up the subject of evangelization hmm the work of salvation must begin with the power of evangelization there can be no salvation without effective evangelization it says in Scripture faith comes by hearing hearing by preaching the Word of God so it was in the 1st century AD so it is today now more than ever if we're going to talk about evangelization we're also going to talk about the obstacles that stand in opposition to it to understand what's really happening in today's world what dangers truly are in the spiritual battle of our time we are friends we can say in a spiritual moral cultural minefield think of the cultural factors that make the proclamation of the gospel so very difficult in our day in the post Christian society that we live in we can say first of all that we live in a spiritually morally philosophically poisonous environment characterized by these cultural problems as they impact on the life of the church in the individual I want to define these terms for you as briefly as I can and and you don't have to be a theologian to get this you don't have to be a scholar to pick up all this most of this is common sense stuff and and you see these things playing out all around you today all I'm going to do here is give some names to these things mmm first there is secularism secularism the idea that human life existence destiny can be completely understood without reference to God and an eternity it is the philosophy that holds it is possible to build a just society without God without God's love God's law God's commandments and in this separation of church in States means the separation of God from life there is rationalism the idea that human reason is all sufficient to bring about the well-being of the human person no need for God divine revelation Christianity in particular is seen as an obstacle to science and human progress that of course is a fallacy because there can be no contradiction between God and science faith and reason precisely because God is the author of all of it it all comes from there is subjectivism or radical individualism the denial of the authority of the church the god-given authority of the Catholic Church to teach definitively in matters of faith and morals the rejection of the divinely protected Magisterium of the church guided and guarded by the Holy Spirit as our Lord promised in the fullness of truth in favor of the idea that the individual the self is the measure of all truth measure of all morality standard of all reality hand in hand with that goes relativism relativism the idea that there is no difference between opinion and truth the truth is whatever you want to make it whatever your opinions are that is the truth for you no such thing is absolute truth no moral absolutes whereas Pope Benedict the 16th used to speak often about the world today enforcing the dictatorship of relativism there is pragmatism the popular belief that we as Catholics have got to get in step with the modern world conform to the ways of the world go along in order to get along the idea that we can somehow change or all her eternal truth eternal moral or God's law to make it more acceptable to the contemporary culture this of course is compromise the short road to ruin time and time again the sacred scriptures teach us about the dire consequences of compromise and matters of faith and mauls right here's what happens he's what the consequences are we talk about the four C's this is what happens when you compromise your Catholic faith compromise confusion corruption collapse it all ends in collapse what's happening to our country right now there is materialism or radical consumerism the idea that a person's life is worth no more than the sum total of his or her possessions the only way to be happy in this world is to acquire more material goods now there's that old saying that old nonsense that goes around among the rich and famous wherever it dies with the most toys wins the game hmm there is the philosophy of hedonism hedonism the idea that pleasure is life's greatest good the highest goal the highest objective of the human person to be sought above all else at the same time suffering sacrifice anything that stands in the way of pleasure is the worst of all evils to be avoided at all costs our young people are being infected with this insidious mentality every single day now there are many more these kind of isms there's no time to go into all them of course but take it in toho taken in total it is the new paganism paganism what's paganism I was on vacation a couple you a couple weeks ago and I was visiting with an old army buddy of mine and his family and we always called him Mack for short but Mack was telling me about a young woman that he works with that always gives him a hard time and her name is Kelly and he says that Kelly is a very vain um materialistic self-centered self-absorbed promiscuous kind of person your typical Material Girl and one time Mac is trying to talk to Kelly about her lifestyle and saying to her you know do you believe anything you have any kind of faith are there any principles that you live by do you have any religion and Kelly's answer was this oh yeah I have a religion my religion is Kelly ISM Kelly ISM fell words it's all about her life is all about getting what she wants doing what she wants to do when she wants to do it you see it's all about doing her own thing doing her own will now Kelly is a is religion but there's a proper name for it we call it paganism what is paganism the essence of paganism is idolatry and the worst the most insidious form of idolatry is the worship of the self see the exaltation of the self over God right this is the philosophy that drives the culture of death all this all these influences have taken a heavy toll in the last 50 years and have brought about the rise of the better part of a generation of lukewarm Catholics nominal Catholics cultural Catholics cafeteria Catholics inactive Catholics all them what you will it is characterized by a weak faith associated with the word but but I'm a Catholic yes but my old superior on the mission ban the late father John Malloy passed away two years ago yesterday at the age of 93 it's a great man it's a tough old New Yorker never minced any words he used to say you want to know what's wrong with the church I'll tell you what's wrong with the church too many but Catholics and we'd say well father what's up but Catholic it's a you know ones who say I'm a Catholic but I'm a Catholic but that church is not going to tell me anything I'm a Catholic but I'm not gonna mayor's on Sundays I'm going to worship God in my own way our mechanic but whatever two consenting adults do behind closed doors is okay with me I'm a Catholic but I'm going to dump my spouse and get another one I'm a Catholic but I believe in a woman's right to abortion I'm personally opposed but my Catholic faith is not going to influence my public decisions by public actions of my vote heard it all before right but Catholics now all that having been said just remember this right these obstacles can be overcome you say that again for you these obstacles can be overcome precisely because nothing is impossible with God where sin abounds grace abounds all the more we have got to cooperate with that grace and to those who think the church is finished let me say this for two thousand years the Catholic Church has been burying her Undertaker's hmm let them not kid themselves let me ask you this hmm do you ever think seriously about the personal responsibility the moral obligation that you have to be a witness for Jesus Christ in your daily life to help at least to help to spread and to share the Catholic faith hands it on to us from the Apostles to give off yourself not just in term of your time and your talents your money but with the best the most effective witness of all the example of a holy life do you consider the fact that you have a sacred duty before God and before others to do just exactly that by virtue of your baptism and again by virtue of your confirmation to get off the fence get into the fray and fight the good fight as a soldier for Christ do you see that God wants you to get personally involved and actively involved to do what you have to do what you can do to do whatever it takes to defend the cause of Christ it turned back the flood tide of evil in the world your world and I can't emphasize this enough there's only one part of the world god expects you to do this in that is your world but little part of the world that God has put you in your little circle of influence your little sphere of influence everyone that everybody has got one no matter how insignificant you may think it is your prayers are powerful whether you know it or not Pope Francis in recent weeks has been calling upon all the faithful especially the Catholic laity to take part in rebuilding the church to help get the New Evangelization back on track and he tells us quote don't be a backseat Christian don't be an anonymous Christian a Catholic who has gotten the idea that somehow all of that is somebody else's business all of us evangelization stuff is just a the business are the bishop and the priests and the nuns and the evangelicals when you know you should know one of the primary responsibilities of the Catholic laity is to sanctify the temporal order get Christ into your world you see do it in your own little way you can do it you can do it hmm we're called to be evangelizers witnesses and you know that word witness is a legal term it's used in the practice of the law you hear that term witness used in every courtroom at every trial and one was called to be a witness is called to testify to testify to the truth in some very grave matter one was called as a witness very often puts his name and his reputation and his future and even his life on the line one day my brothers and sisters all of us are going to stand in judgment before the Lord Jesus Christ well the Apostle st. Paul calls the tribunal of Christ the King of Kings the Lord of lords the judge or the living and the dead and he will be a judge who takes no bribes and accepts no excuses and cuts no deals and takes no plea bargains and from him nothing will be hidden one of the reasons why I love the lives of the saints one of the reasons why we should all study the lives of the saints is because they give us concrete examples of holiness of life concrete witness for Christ and every time in every place in every walk of life tomorrow I am going to talk about the heroic witness in our day and age of persecuted Catholics all over the world especially in the Islamic world but as I close here let me give you some practical suggestions to help you hopefully to be a better evangelists maybe a better witness or Christ first of all know your Catholic faith take the time make the effort to educate yourself in the fullness of truth of our Catholic faith don't be content to be a spiritual intellectual baby there's an old saying you can't give what you haven't got second be a joyful person hmm remember the Christian joy is an important part of your witness to the world precisely because the people around you the people in your sphere of influence need to be able to see that there is something good happening in your life because of the practice of your faith if they see that you're going to want a little what you've got so I st. Teresa of Avila is to say God save us from a sad face Saints third do not take part in dissatisfying conversations gossip slander detraction rash judgment get away from it defiles you also if you hear something said about the faith in your presence that is wrong or immoral or just plain stupid be man enough be woman enough to speak up make a fraternal correction do wouldn't charity but do it if you see something in a newspaper attacking the faith sit down and write a letter to the editor if you can please email fire off an email there is a doctor in Bowling Green Kentucky in our neighborhood his name is dr. Tim Halsey and I don't know if he's a Catholic or not I believe that he is he's a surgeon but anytime something shows up in that Bowling Green rag that is anti Christian or anti-american you can be sure you can bet chances are dr. Halsey will have a letter to the editor and that paper refuting it in the next day or two I admire that I'd like to meet him someday become a prayer warrior hmm get involved in a prayer group if you can take part in Eucharistic Adoration father heart and used to say only rice the miracle worker in the Holy Eucharist can save us from the mess that we are in it's going to take miracles miracles don't be ashamed ask someone to pray with you or pray for you start up the family rosary in your home if you haven't done it already take the call to holiness seriously huh one of my favorite Saints is Padre Pio Saint Pietro chena and when I was in seminary there was a fellow there named Joe Peterson and at Holy Apostles seminary at that time they had the Padre Pio foundation to promote of course the ocean to the great Padre Pio that was before his canonization of course but Joe Peterson was a terrific guy he had been a GI in Italy during World War Two and during the war he and some of his GI pals had heard about this amazing Capuchin friar a miracle worker a Padre Pio so they made a pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo and they were able to meet with Padre Pio and um Padre Pio course liked Americans very much he liked GIS treated them very well and they hit it off right away they found Padre Pio to be very delightful great sense of humor and he invited Joe to come back whenever he got the opportunity to come back to San Giovanni Rotondo and you know visit with him so Joe took Padre Pio up on the offer you know Joe worked for 25 years with the Postal Service and he take his vacation in the summertime and he'd go to San Giovanni Rotondo to see Padre Pio and used to serve his mass and he used to travel around the country for their lives may remember this but Joe Peterson had a great slide presentation on the life of Padre Pio and the time that they spent together which was really amazing and I loved it very much but he's to tell us a story that he said it was one of Padre Pio's favorite stories to tell and he said that he heard this story directly from Padre Pio right one day Padre Pio was receiving a group of pilgrims there at san giovanni rotondo and a little italian nun very aggressive pushed her way through the crowd rushed forward and she ran up the padre pio reached out snatched the rosary of his rope cincture took off with it Padre Pio lost many rosaries that way to relic honors souvenir secrets right anyways little Italian nun steals Padre Pio's rosary and takes off with it Padre Pio takes off after catches up to her spins her around says sister what have you done before not this trembling she scared she says Padre I wanted a relic Padre Pio reaches out he takes his rosary back says sister please go home go back to the convent and start making your own relics you get the message right you are called by God created by God to be a saint nothing less than that right you're called to be a saint not just a nice guy not just a nice gal that's not good enough in the sight of Almighty God all right we're called to answer the call holiness that with the central message of the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago hmm again Pope Francis now is calling all of us everyone to help get the new evangelization back on track he's telling us time and time again pray pray for apostolic zeal pray for the grace the ability to be effective evangelist says don't be a backseat Christian and if you annoy people if you annoy people blessed be the Lord amen you

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Keywords: Religion, Christian, Catholic, Franciscan, Spirituality, Battle, Christophobia, Fr. Bill Casey, hatred

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Length: 45min 8sec (2708 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 15 2013