Franciscan University Presents: Being Transformed by the Gospel

what is the gospel and how should we understand the story of our salvation how do we respond to that story and better yet how can we share the story with others join us today as we discuss those questions and more with father john ricardo the author of the new book rescued the unexpected and extraordinary news of the gospel i'm father dave pavanki and i'm president of franciscan university in steubenville ohio and you're watching franciscan university presents stay with us [Music] [Music] so to franciscan university presents i'm your host father dave povonk and i'm president of franciscan university of steubenville and we're talking today about being transformed by the gospel i'm joined by our panelist dr regis martin good to have you and dr scott hahn pleasure our guest today is father john ricardo he is a priest of the archdiocese of detroit and founder of acts 29 father ricardo also hosts a popular radio show christ is the answer and is the author of the new book rescued the unexpected and the extraordinary the extraordinary news of the gospel welcome father thanks father pleasure to have you here joy to be here question i always ask is why did you write this book uh so short answer would be because it'd be my conviction that most catholics let alone most people outside the church have never heard the gospel how's that for provocative yeah yeah which is pretty remarkable because don't they go to church every week that's a pretty stunning indictment isn't it i mean you're on the front line so you must know but i thought the whole point of the council was to open up the gospel yep supposed to i don't think it worked sorry so here's here's how i'd say it so john paul in katakisi trudende uh he writes this he says the the proclamation of the kerygma which is what i mean by the gospel not matthew mark lewis exactly what that is the core message of the gospel he says the proclamation of the kerygma is supposed to be such that a person is gradually overwhelmed and then brought to a decision to surrender their whole lives to jesus so imagine if he and i were to stand up in any any church in the country this coming sunday and just ask quick show of hands here how many of you have been overwhelmed by the gospel yeah the crickets you know how many people here have made a decision to surrender their whole lives to jesus in a given parish what do you think you'd get five ten maybe right and i think the reason for that is uh the lectionary so the lectionary presupposes that you know scripture how many people know i mean people will tell you like i don't understand the bible right that's why you do what you do and so what are you and i left with doing you know i got three readings which most people don't know they have anything to do with each other and you got 10 minutes make it kind of funny give them something practical and don't be too long right yeah that's a tragedy yeah so i wrote this in a particular way because this is how the lord's led me to understand the kerygma the core message of the gospel and because i want to tell as many people as i can about it right you know it reminds me of people who might know what a layup is a free throw a three-pointer but they've never done a layup you know they know the rules right but they never played the game they know the creed but they don't know the ruler the king of kings and so they know it at one level but they have the experience of well you know what scripture says you have to have ears that hear eyes that see and that is exactly what a conversion is needed you know and it's also something that isn't just over and done in the past but that kind of conversion has to be ongoing i've spent two years the last two years more or less preaching this wherever i go starting usually with priests and then with other people but so i've gotten to the point now where somebody will ask me a question so nobody calls a priest and says hey i just want to tell you how great my life is right i mean if you come to see me you come to see me because you got problems right and so i've just learned before i do anything i'm going to say to you you know i'm going to ask you why are you here and then i'm going to say before i answer that or try to help you can i just tell you how i see the world and i'll put on a pair of glasses because if you don't understand how i see the world nothing's going to make sense right so i can do this in five minutes and every single time i do it i mean like without fail every time i do it i'm thinking of a young woman who probably was the most beautiful woman i've ever met in my life 28 years old stunningly attractive very successful her life's a train wreck so i asked her i said can i tell you how i see the world she says yeah i got done with this she was bawling her eyes out she looked at me and she says why have i never heard this before it's it's sad how many times i've heard something like that you know you talk you preaches i've never heard this before it's like that's just a stunning uh maybe just one of the things i appreciate about your book feather was the corrigan the gospel but you actually started in genesis and kind of beginning to unpack that what what motivated you to do that to start there well because one of the ways for me anyway so the krigma's four parts right so the goodness of creation sin and its consequences god's response to our sin and then our response to what god's done so if it's the goodness of creation i mean where are you gonna start you're gonna start in genesis and the way i formulate it is just by asking the question like why is there something rather than nothing that was great that's a huge question right i mean i was doing this in a high school retreat and a kid came up to me in the break and said i haven't heard a word you said since you said that because i just keep thinking about that like i have no idea like i've never thought about that question yeah well you know he's in good company uh william james said that's the darkest question in all philosophy why is there being rather than nothingness and martin heidegger was so haunted by it that he retreated into the black forest for weeks at a stretch it was just i mean it just overwhelmed him yeah you know getting back to scott's analogy about basketball people are not fascinated by the game that's why they're not interested in learning how to play it who was that guy that quit he was an incredible star he just stopped playing because it wasn't fun anymore it couldn't be invested emotionally in it so how do we trigger how do we catalyze that experience well so for me i mean genesis in general but it's it's especially genesis 1 and it's genesis 1 16 where um whoever i'll let you tell me who's writing genesis somebody's got something in his hand and he's writing on some sort of animal skin or whatever right and and it's you know you know he made the sun he made the moon and then there's a in my mind this is such a comical line it's kind of this pause and he goes he made the stars too like he made the stars too like this is a throwaway line right like do you know how many stars there are right yeah there's there's a hundred billion stars in our galaxy our galaxy is one of a hundred billion galaxies each with a hundred billion stars in it the universe is out there the universe is 46 billion light years across that's 46 billion times 5.88 trillion miles across and oh yeah he just made these two i forgot to mention that and so the point in in the goodness of creation and who this god is is whatever our image of god is it's wrong right you know i pray i'm always having an image of god when i'm praying and i'm just thinking like oh i hope he can come through you hope he can come through do you know who you're talking to do you know the majesty and the splendor and the power of this god and yet in this creation that he's made without any effort whatsoever the creature he most loves yo isn't us it's you right yeah by name regis it's you father dave it's you scott it's me it's everybody who's watching he knows everything about us and that's unfathomable to me yeah you know it's important to make a move okay he's created the galaxies the hundreds of billions of stars why would he be concerned about me how would he even know about me and if he does know every detail of my body my subatomic particles you know so what you know to make man in his image and likeness in verse 26 of genesis 1. to me is like the move that suddenly stuns us and makes us realize you know as far as god's greatness is concerned subatomic particles and galaxies are maybe an inch apart in terms of vastness and so his greatness is not diminished by his concern for us that's his greatness the fact that of all of the galaxies and the molecules we alone bear his image and likeness and he made this for us he gets nothing out of it by making it or by redeeming it it's for our sake not for his you know you talk about homer in the iliad in the odyssey or virgils in need and how that gave the story to make sense out of life for the the greeks and then the romans except that it's almost all fictional or at least it's fictionalized and so to grasp the story that is the truth of reality the vastness and yet the personalism of every single one of us he's more concerned about me than i am and my loved ones and so and then contrast that with the ancient near eastern myths right so so i went to university of michigan i was a you know lsa major which meant i had fun so i took a lot of mythology classes and and everyone would tell uh the students you know like pretty much every ancient culture had its own mythology and they're all more or less the same that's just rubbish right there is nothing like the creation accounts in the ancient near easterners right the ancient near eastern myths there's many gods they're not good um they're all at war with each other they make man the male at a certain point because they need a slave they don't make them for friendship they make them to do the work they don't want to do they make woman for one reason right for children and for pleasure i mean in a world like that there's no point to work there's no point to marriage there's no point to sexuality there's no point to living so what it rains despair that sounds like our world right into that world comes genesis and god says no no no there's one god it's just me and i'm really good and everything i made i made out of love and the highlight of everything i made is you and i made you for friendship yeah we occupy the summit of the stair two bookends uh have struck me one of all of these stars that god took the trouble to make and and stick somewhere in the cosmos and then at the other extreme he has counted every hair on your head he takes an infinite interest in you i mean chesterton has that great line what i like about this god is he takes such an interest in his secondary creatures that's us we're not really the protagonists of this drama god is but he cares about us but and in another part where you spend a great time in the story the character in the story is the one who messes this up and you speak about the serpent and you spend a lot of time speaking about that and i just got a little bit of pushback recently they said that i talked about the evil one and that's not how they think he is he's just kind of out off off the side not paying attention to us i would suggest you differ with that opinion yeah a little bit yeah yeah so i i think one of the reasons why so many people don't experience the gospel as unexpected and extraordinary is because they don't know the bad news and we never talk about the bad news or we rarely talk about the bad news and the bad news is not bad the bad news is horrific right yeah so if the if the first part of the kerygma is why is there something rather than nothing and the answer is because god and his goodness created it out of love the next question is well then how did it get all messed up and the scriptural answer is i don't think this i don't see i don't think i you probably taught this i just wasn't listening to you although i read you i didn't have you for class i don't think most people hear this so we talk about sin and its consequences so the consequence of sin is separation from god which is true if you told me that at 18 i would have met that with a resounding yawn like who cares you know but it's not just separation from god right the result of the fall is that when the enemy deceives our race this creature who was an angel who was good who rebels out of envy of us of god to be sure but of us and what god's plan for us he tricks us into doing what into selling ourselves into slavery to powers that we can't compete against i never heard that yeah i experienced it exactly right and it's so easy to prove right i mean like the powers especially are two right death and sin which especially in romans which you know better than anybody are best written in capital letters death's a kingdom right it rains right it lords over creation and so is sin and it's easy to prove because i'll just i won't ask you because you don't have any experience of it i'll ask you um have you ever done anything that you didn't want to do no that you knew you shouldn't do right that you hated doing you know and you like all the time right why because sins of power yeah yeah the mystery of iniquity uh saint paul calls it you know catholic doctrine is for so many catholics like a shopping list you go out and get these groceries you come home and you forget to eat them and they spoil you know original sin oh i got that well that is the death of the soul the catechism says concupiscence that is the reign of death and not just physical decay but death the prince of death right you know the bad news is much worse than people realize it's not a runny nose it's not a common cold it's more than a pandemic yeah that's right and this isn't like oh you're just kind of exaggerating that's hyperbole no actually it's understating it yeah and if and if you've ever lost loved ones then you know it up close and personal right i mean i buried my mom my dad my brother in two and a half years and uh i remember standing at my mom's bedside as she's about to leave this earth my father left us a fair amount of money we had great doctors we had great medical care and nothing makes you feel was impotent at the bed of someone you love and and it's going to take her you know and you're helpless and i can't do anything why because death's a power yeah no it's not supposed to be here it came as a consequence of sin and now it rains which is why if some guy comes along and says look i i intend to break that sham kingdom into the kingdom of death and sin you're going to take notice you ought to pay that's galvanized please find the strongest i think that that's what you do just so very well is you lay out this is the situation i think some of the things that they know people know that they're living in it but nobody's ever shown shine light on that and help them to see that which i think you did really really beautifully in that we have much more to talk about so please stay with us as we continue franciscan university [Music] presents consider the world view presented in genesis there is only one god he's good he is complete he needs nothing outside himself god created everything out of nothing freely effortlessly and generously everything he created was out of love everything god created is good the highlight of everything god created is the human person made in his image and likeness the end the purpose and the reason every human person was created is to be divinized father john ricardo from his book rescued the unexpected and extraordinary news of the gospel we become members of a family that originates in god the father the son of the holy spirit but that holy spirit overshadows the blessed virgin so we become her children as well people knew that when the messiah came that this promise would call them as a covenant people to be what a light to the nations and everybody is invited to walk through that door of mercy the only key we need is the one that each one of us has but it is my sin that opens up the mercy of god amen [Music] welcome back to franciscan university presents we are talking about being transformed by the gospel which is good news correct how good kind of it's better than that yeah that's right it's good just doesn't seem enough so here's the image so imagine imagine the four of us are sitting we're living in france it's june 7th 1944. so it's the day after d-day right so the last four years our country's been invaded it's occupied by a tyrant we've lost brothers to you know gas chambers forest work camps in germany no one's coming for us and we have no future right so imagine we're sitting there we're drinking some coffee one day paper boi bad coffee by the way right paper boi throws in a newspaper i open it up and you guys asked me so what happened yesterday right and i go well nothing much looks like the allies landed right i mean would i read it that way like are you out of your mind like somebody came somebody came to fight for us like the allies landed at normandy like we're going to get out we're going to get free they're going to come become the tyrant the gospel is extr is infinitely better than that right infinitely better than that right because the message of the gospel is god has come to fight for you you mean so much to him i mean so much to him that god has come to fight for me don't forget that there's always an interval between d-day and v-day i mean victory in europe will take a while oh yeah we're we're living in that right now right yeah clearly yeah but the victory has been declared it's definitive christ is going to win absolutely and to me the reason why that's so helpful again for me anyway is just because i i have to find some comparative to understand how powerful the gospel is this is not ordinary news this is good news this is good news this this is life-changing news right campbell's soup is good this is great this is be you know but the problem is getting back to that first point is that you know like the prophets of ancient israel what bothered them was not that their fellow israelites were in exile so much as that they didn't know they were in exile you know for frenchmen to be occupied by the nazis and to not know it you know that would say yeah ho-hum we're liberated whatever that means you know and so to recognize the extent of the bad news is the key the foil for which you look and say that is good no that's very that's great that's extraordinary well because once i understand that i'm bound by sin and death so once you've buried a loved one once you've come face to face with death once you've come face to face which shouldn't take too long with your own powerlessness against sin then you recognize where you are so dan daniel for me uh it struck me this past lent in a way it never has before you know the israelites are where they're in babylon why because they rebelled against god so what do they need to do they need to repent great that's not enough that's a start someone needs to come and rescue us and that's us as a race right so in the season of lent we talk all the time about repent repent repent well that's great it's not enough return return return and then someone come and fight for me because i can't do anything i'm powerless against these things so what happens so god god becomes a man right so here's the third part of the kerygma uh god's response to it so what's he do um he becomes a man hidden in in human flesh to rescue the creature that he most loves in this universe in a most clever way yeah right so uh i think it's lewis and mere christianity says you know the story of christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed in disguise and calls us to embark on a great campaign of sabotage we'll get to that at the end that's the fun part you know so but if you show you show a typical you know church-going person an image of jesus in the manger and ask what's he doing there why do you come i don't think they have an answer yeah if i show you a picture of the allies landing at normandy yeah and i ask you that question no why have they come you have an immediate answer they came to fight i think we're supposed to have the same answer when we look at jesus it's obvious that you've been arrested by this good news but how did that happen did you have an encounter did something transform your life or unless it's too personal i'd like to know because you obviously have been seized you have this you're in a kind of stupor because of the good news it's intoxicating well how did that happen how did you get drunk on this message lots of ways i had great parents who are both with the lord now and they they laid the foundation uh i had great siblings you're not a convert i'm a no i i i had abandoned the faith very intentionally kind of like edith stein said like i made a deliberate decision at a certain point in my life to stop actively living as a christian um but was always i mean even then i was always praying i always knew god i was just running your beds no i was running from it i was writing i was under the illusion that if i the best of both worlds is indulge every appetite here and then like repent and you get it you get it all yeah and that's just a lie sort of like augustine's father something like that i'll put this off until the end exactly and then and then the lord just really powerfully broke into my life and uh as you're talking i'm thinking of philippians 3 and you know paul says i strive to take hold of the one who's taken hold of me that's that's how i i see experience life i feel like god just literally took hold of me you're a cradle convert yeah both absolutely yeah yeah so you spend the time helping yeah again that the vast majority of people in the pew you ask them that question about who's been overwhelmed why is jesus in the manger how do you bring that alive for them what what is what is your secret sauce that you're working with that actually animates that for the listener for the person in the pew yeah so um there's a way to tell the story to be sure but at least i find so much comfort in romans one where paul says uh the gospel is the power of god for salvation and especially as a priest i think what's so critical for that is um the gospel's power not the herald that's that's really freeing yeah like we need to know what we're talking about and we we want to do everything we can to preach compellingly and attractively but for everybody who's listening i mean the gospel itself is power just open your mouth and share it but for me the way i share it especially with this third part you know like what has god done for us in jesus is to try to so imagine looking at jesus on a cross and ask the question what is he doing there which even of itself sounds like a really stupid question i mean it doesn't look like he's doing anything they're doing it to him yeah i mean here's a man who's stark naked ripped to shreds utterly humiliated apparently defeated you know bleeding out in front of us right what do you mean what is he doing there except remember who this is this is the one through whom a universe that's 46 billion light years across was created where do you get that nail you can't nail god to a cross it's not like he has kryptonite right there's only one way jesus can get on the cross he has to want to be there yeah why in the world would he want to be there and there's three answers classically in the faith right and and i think most of us especially now we hear two of them we never hear the third one so the first is so on the cross jesus is showing me the father's love right it's the guy with the afro behind home plate you know john 3 16 right yeah god so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that we would not perish is that true absolutely blessed be god it's not exhaustive though right second thing he's doing is he's making atonement for me so paul says what that god made him who knew no sin to be sin i don't even know what that means i mean i do but i don't right so that in him we might become the righteousness of god is that true absolutely it's not enough the third thing he's doing which we never talk about but what the fathers of the church incessantly preached was jesus is going to war on the cross he's deceiving the deceiver into bringing about his own destruction and so um for me this i mean you and i've talked about this several times uh scott but um so i'm sitting in my chapel one day this is a set of years ago now three four years ago it's right before holy week and i'm just praying with the passion and out of nowhere and i mean nowhere i hear two words in my head that i've never heard in my life and the two words are ambush predator so i have a wacky imagination but i also know how god talks to me and i'm thinking okay i think is this you you know so i pull out my phone i google ambush predator and i just start to laugh so an ambush predator is a is a creature which lies motionless and still camouflaged with its environments for one reason to attract prey and some of these things are everywhere they're in the woods they're in the water they're in your house sorry um and i felt like the lord just said that's me and as you read the fathers ephraim irenaeus uh athanasius augustine gregory of nissa molito on and on and on this is the image they don't use those two words but this is the image that they use augustine talks about how jesus is the incarnation and him on the cross is like a mousetrap you know his humanity is the cheese and his divinity is the bar and he's trying to get the devil to bite and he bites right um gregory vanessa uses the image of a fish hook isidor of seville uses the image of um of a fishhook the genealogy is the line and the one holding the rod is the father who's trolling for satan you know deceiving the deceiver destroying the destroyer oh it's just spectacular right it's it's why gibson at the um in the passion of the christ is that really strange scene right after jesus dies you know there's a tear that falls from the sky and then you you see the figure of satan standing on cracked ground it's it's less than a second i think on the in the movie and he's screaming it is not a scream of glee it's a scream of like oh no like what have i just done and it's not just what have i done it's what has he done yeah i thought i was doing it to him he was doing it to me so what the lord does is invades hell it's like you know you have to think so [Music] figuratively here you know what not but it's almost like the lord's wanting to get swallowed by death because he's going to bind the strong man and he's going to assail him i mean that's that passage in especially in luke's translation of when jesus drives out the demon and the pharisees say uh they accuse him of doing it by the prince of demons and he says if i'm doing it by the prince of demons who you all do nearby right and then he says when when a strong man guards his possessions you know his goods are safe but when one stronger than him assails him and overcomes him then his possessions can go free i think for me anyway especially for men most men have an image of jesus that goes something like this he's kind he's gentle he's compassionate yeah he's merciful he plays with children he likes kittens i mean you know he's a wimp yeah he's all these things to be sure but he's so much more right jesus is lord which is not the ending of a prayer it's a reality which means if he is nobody else is right and it means he's absolutely and utterly unconquerable and he's the one who's calling you and me to follow him yeah you know we have so sentimentalized the figure of christ we picture a redeemer as a guy who as a private citizen would probably recycle and exactly i mean that's not that's not the figure of our uh conquest of the world and especially in in this age that we're living in where there's so much anxiety and there's so much fear and it looks like you know the church is just you know last one out turn the lights off yeah i mean it just looks horrible right it's so important to remember who he is what he's done that you're on the right side of history and then he's calling us to engage the culture and to win them to him in a couple of several times actually already today you've spoken of the word power and and i think that that's something that's lacking void in most people's spiritual life is this power that jesus came so stay with us uh we'll be back we'll speak a little bit more about the power of god [Music] for i am not ashamed of the gospel it is the power of god for the salvation of everyone who believes for jew first and then greek for in it is revealed the righteousness of god from faith to faith as it is written the one who is righteous by faith will live saint paul's letter to the romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. what if you discovered a university with unmatched science faculty and programs a place where you didn't have to choose science over faith at franciscan university of steubenville you'll find faith-inspired student-focused research-driven programs leading to satisfying careers in medicine scientific research engineering computer science and many more science and health fields at franciscan university of steubenville education is more than just a word it's a discovery [Music] welcome back and thank you for joining us you're watching franciscan university presents which we record in the communication arts studio here at franciscan university in steubenville our students are operating the cameras and equipment and members of our theology faculty dr regis martin and dr scott hahn and i are discussing being transformed by the gospel with father john ricardo we spoke about this power that the lord has and all that he's done for us what he's freed and there has to be some kind of response to this and that would be yeah i mean you don't just go hey that is excellent i appreciate that you know like dust off yeah i mean like what what is the reasonable logical intelligent sane response to a god who made the universe who became man by going to a cross to rescue you from a fate worse than anything you could imagine i mean isn't it just to surrender yeah like who who would you possibly be able to trust more yeah and what would you want to negotiate with yeah yeah i mean there's nothing left to give you exactly you know like yeah i mean so um faith is an intelligent response to what god has done once once we understand what jesus has done and what he's rescued us from like i'm made to entrust myself to somebody yeah that's how we live it shows how unbelief is so entirely unintelligent exactly yeah yeah it's irrational not to surrender yeah right surrender what does that look like though i mean we use language like that what does that look like for the average person who's watching our show what does it look like for them to surrender you can have my life what are you asking yeah you can have my life everything you can without condition yeah without boundaries without yep my time my money no no prenup that's right that's right that validates the whole thing don't do that bad thing okay right yes um yeah and of course i got to do it every day right i had a friend of mine he was asked recently uh same same number of years ordained as me when did you decide to become a priest and he said this morning it's like that's a great answer right because paul says you know offer yourselves as a living sacrifice and the challenge of a living sacrifice is it keeps crawling off the altar right right right so every day i have to crawl back onto the altar and go here you are sort of like having a wife you have to remind yourself and tell her each day you know i love you exactly let me show you how right yeah something that's showing is that that's the response yeah yeah yeah so i mean you know uh father francis martin used to say show me your calendar and show me your checkbook and i'll show you whether or not you've surrendered yeah because where you give your money and where you give your time will be a key way for you to understand who i'm serving right right so yeah it means you can have everything and um it doesn't mean you have to sell everything but it means you can have everything i'm yours entirely yours right that's the first part of the response i think but there's a second part which is i think especially challenging for us as catholics because in the archdiocese of detroit archbishop vigneron uses this triad of encounter grow and witness so we're most people have never encountered in a personal transformative way uh god um let alone grow and i don't have a clue what to do with witness you know other than learn how to tell your story in an elevator or share your personal testimony there's a lot of value to that but i don't think that's what it means to witness i think there's a lot more than that so one of the ways that we talk about it we had two marine corps majors call us one day who've become good friends and they just said you guys sound a lot like marines let me just share with you she said how we train our young leaders and they train them to make it abundantly clear to the young soldiers that they have clarity on we're doing x in order to y so we're landing at okinawa in order to we're dropping into iraq in order to what jesus sends us as disciples in order to what you know really i mean he calls us for friendship right the first call the disciples be with him but then he sends us to do something right and so uh so matthew five you know no one lights a lamp puts it underneath a basket puts it on a stand so that everybody in the house can see right um why don't you put under a basket because it's stupid makes no sense right you don't light a lamp to hide it who's the lamp i am remember the greek word leeknose that's the lamp so it's this little tiny portable hand lamp filled with oil i'm the leaknose i'm the lamp every day god wants to pick me up he wants to move me from room to room in the house which is the world and put me on a stand which is just wherever i happen to be and so we would say jesus sends us in order to do five things five words and three of them are peace corps words and two of them are marine corps words remember this family show i know so don't worry we got you okay okay so the first the first word is he sends us to be an agent of recreation right so uh easter sunday is the beginning of the recreation of the universe right and the lord's gonna come back on ve day and he's gonna make it all well but until then he wants to use us to recreate things so maybe i'm a maybe i'm a physician maybe i'm an attorney maybe i'm a professor maybe i'm a priest maybe i'm a stay-at-home dad or a stay-at-home mom like do everything i can so as to bring it into conformity with how the father intended it to be whatever it might be or an agent of transformation same kind of principle or an agent of healing you know i i'm amazed how many people they don't think god still heals today right right so you want about power jesus says into whatever town you enter preach the gospel heal the sick in it that's still true for us now right physically spiritually emotionally those are the peace corps words the marine corps words are um against lewis's language he sends us to be an agent of sabotage so you know with the weapons of truth and goodness and beauty and dignity and character and forgiveness and mercy and all those things right so that nobody misunderstands us or to be a leader or a member of the resistance so i've been struck a lot lately by the the french resistance to one percent of the population because the leaders didn't do anything which was kind of an interesting image for us today um and they did two things they they built bridges and they blew up bridges and for us you know i think as as christians that means we share the story that's building a bridge and we blow up bridges meaning those things yeah we try to help dismantle those things which belong to like the anti-gospel help people understand why nothing else makes sense not straw man take on the best arguments of the world and go here's why that doesn't make any sense so the world says there's no fall there's no devil there's there's there's no demonic and there's clearly still evil yeah which means now someone's to blame so it's it's the men or it's the women or it's the whites or it's the blacks or it's the rich or it's the poor it's the yankee fans you know like we got to blow up those bridges and help them understand right i think those things are part and parcel of the response well how are we doing poorly yeah really poorly i think by every assessment in the church the metrics are horrible yeah that's why it's just so important to get back to the gospel right right i don't want to pass the buck but what the hell are the priests and bishops doing to advance this agenda that you've outlined with such eloquence well the first thing is they're exhausted that's the problem i mean so many of our brothers i left parish ministry in the first month i realized i'm in ptsd and i mean it i mean like i was just you get so used in parish life to just living with your head on a swivel going from trauma to trauma to trauma to trump i used to think it was a great gig you worked an hour a week i mean like how hard could that be then you realize no i got 12 000 children in the parish where i was at and i was yeah i was just at my wit's end you were the only one now i had a couple of guys to help me so so we had 4 000 people at peace well your parish was also a hospital an aircraft carrier i mean it was a major thing yeah and it was also fruitful it was but at the same time you were evangelizing as someone who was obviously still in need of the medicine of mercy and so you know talk about moving from maintenance to mission you know i understand why you were exhausted but i also understand why the people in your parish were so bereaved you know it was a great loss but in a certain sense i think the archbishop was sending you out into the world to evangelize but also especially to mobilize priests to re-evangelize them and lay leadership and so you know i'm sitting here with two of the most fruitful and zealous evangelical catholic priests you know reminds me so much of the evangelists that i knew as an evangelical way back you know so i do believe that in the midst of this we have bishops who will throw their priests under the bus you know at the least hint of something you know and i understand but at the same time what we need are bishops who are going to be commanders in chief who are going to raise up the sergeants you know and the officers then to not paternalistically keep the laity at bay but to enlist them as well well and we know as priests right i mean like i have to constantly get re-evangelized i have to constantly be reminded that jesus is lord and and to live in confidence because again the metrics are so bad and it's so easy to be discouraged leading parish ministry right and so i think that's why at the heart of the work that i'm doing now is to really pour into priests yeah a friend of mine as a priest was just sharing with him and he said one of the things that he's working on is not making secondary things primary that's right and unfortunately because of everything that's going on so many get stuck on these secondary things and the primary thing is the proclamation of the gospel that's right which is to be received in power and transforming and that is simply um yeah i think i think you're right to one degree about just being exhausted and tired but the other is i think you're experiencing as well the grace of god and being a part of that mission is it's life-giving you know when i when i go to bed at night i'm tired but i can't imagine not doing what i'm doing absolutely and then the life that it restores in me when parents go to bed they're exhausted and they might be traumatized too you know by what they have gone through and so what what priests are doing and what others too i mean it really is a partnership of the clergy and a laity that uh tackles this thing but i i can't help but wonder if um paul doesn't nail it once again when he talks about uh you've not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into sin you've received the spirit of sonship so set your mind on things above rather than on things below and so there is such a fundamental and simple decision that we have to make not just every day in the morning but every day throughout the day and that is to set our minds on things above that's right and that's what the holy spirit enables us to do because the bad news that the networks convey to us it's so much worse than we expected it's almost like gravity to focus on the things below and to be traumatized by that and then when you focus on the things above you realize okay this is good news this is great this is extraordinary but it's so fantastic it's going to strike everybody else's fantasy unless you can teach them or enable them to set their minds on things above because then it's like wow the good news is much better than the bad news is bad and i need to be reminded of that several times a day and i think it's important for us as clergy to to do that and that's not to say that we dismiss the bad things that are going on right but i travel a lot there are amazing wonderful blessed things like you're doing father that that we get a tendency it's oh it's so bad it's like that character that with the cloud always over them i'm just not going to live in that world so i'm just not going to i'm not going to deny all the stuff that's going on but i'm also not going to live there and and one of the things you ask my experience at the university is is that i'm also not doing this alone is that there's you and there's you and there's our students and that's what makes this so i think engaged and exciting that it's not just me it's it's this community that's come together with a common purpose a common vision and being able to do what the lord's asking us to do and unfortunately a lot of guys don't have that exactly they're alone right absolutely to be sure the front line is marriage and family but everybody knows that right nobody knows what's going on in the priest unfortunately and priests tend to be really good at pouring themselves out we tend to be really bad at asking you to get poured into man we just we're terrible at it i'm terrible at and people in the trenches don't even know whether we're winning or losing you know you're trying to stay awake alert you know look for the enemy before he sneaks up on you and so there is a bewilderment and a paralysis that sets in and so the need to re-evangelize those who have been de-christianized or just simply sacramentalized but not evangelized and converted i mean that to me is still the single greatest need of all yeah and it always will be a prior a clear concise proclamation of gospel and and as you've said it very well father it's not just this idea but it's something to be experienced and then something that's be able to move us out from that amen amen so i just invite you to stay with us for our final thoughts [Music] by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead jesus has humiliated the enemy destroyed death transferred us to his kingdom given us access to the father recreated us rendered sin impotent given us authority over the enemy and sent us on a mission to get his world back father john ricardo from his book rescued the unexpected and extraordinary news of the gospel there is a place where education begins and faith and reason connect franciscan university of steubenville's online programs will advance your career through an e-learning experience that's both academically excellent and passionately catholic with online degrees taught by full-time professors in theology catechetics business education and other disciplines you can earn your master's degree online without changing your lifestyle find out more today at franciscan.edu where your faith and career can connect online you are the light of the world a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket it is set on a lamp stand where it gives light to all in the house just so your light must shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly father matthew chapter 5 verses 14 to 16. welcome back to franciscan university presents we've come to our final segment regis your final thoughts yeah i scarcely know where to begin because so many splendid things have been said lapidary comments i i think that that should be etched in in stone but but a couple of things pop into my head uh we mustn't obsess about the darkness although it surrounds us everywhere because if you do then you'll only find evidence of darkness and you'll miss those shafts of light and hope that that we cling to and god wants us to radiate out into uh into the world but this much i i i think needs to be taken away there's a story that has to be told and it's got to be told tellingly uh you've got to inspire people lift them right out of their boring bourgeois lives it's got to be so galvanizing that they're prepared to go to the wall on behalf of of this narrative and i it seems to me that you've you've captured it so well uh in this this marvelous uh little book that there's a line up in aquinas that that i always uh referred to he's asking i think in in the commentary on the metaphysics of aristotle he wants to know what is it that the poet and the philosopher have in common because they really are kindred spirits and the answer is the sense of the marvelous miranda they're both struck by beauty and they pursue it and you in your priestly ministry are certainly pursuing it as well and yet the increase the yield is so much greater than one would get from say reading aristotle or even the met or even the commentary on aristotle i mean you're down in the trenches and you're transforming lives so keep doing it thanks brother man thanks for just now i would also say just to you both of you as well is that what you do in the classroom like what you guys do in the classroom does that transformation as well so please don't set yourself short with that scott you never learn something as much as when you have to teach it you know so let's tell our people go out there and teach um my first point would be thank you for writing rescued uh it is a renewal of the gospel precisely by going back to antiquity and rediscovering what molito and irenaeus all the way to maximus you know it's it's stunning to me to read these quotes and to recognize that what is front and center has somehow ended up backstage it's like we got to bring this back the next thing i would say is that if people read this and reflect upon this they're going to reread the gospels and the epistles and say oh my goodness jesus was doing something on the cross it wasn't just done to him and he was accepting it passively that ambush predator thing is just such a a sign of sacred stealth to show that he was not losing his life he was giving it he wasn't the victim of roman violence or injustice or even satanic contempt you know he was the victim of divine love divine mercy the father didn't turn away for three hours so that he could bear the brunt of paternal rage never was the sacred humanity of jesus so lovely to the father as when together in a unity of operations the father the son and the holy spirit were basically absorbing all of the venom of this serpent and then turning it into this life-giving love as we contemplate jesus on the cross your work helps priests and laity recognize that this is the single greatest act of love and i just i do think that a lot of catholics suffer from a kind of penal substitutionitis that afflicted me as a protestant and many others too that you're like if that's how a father treats his only beloved son yikes you know but to see that this is a love that is stronger than death that turns death into a prayer pain into passion suffering into sacrifice and not just back then and there but for us here and now to enlist to join in on that i mean it's like the good news is almost too good to be true you know it's amazing how unamazed we are at this amazing grace and it's like this is so much more than catholic talking points articles of the creed let's be renewed by this let's be ignited by this and let's go out and become supernatural arsonist to set the world ablaze your final thought uh so final thoughts this so at the heart of our work this ministry that i uh get to be a part of right now we would say that it everything flows from three fundamental convictions which guide everything we do the first convictions is that the the world's crying right now in a very particular way um it's been crying since the fall right but it's crying right now um in that we're literally losing the will to live i think 2018 was the first time in a hundred years that the life expectancy in the united states had declined for a third consecutive year and then when covet came it just got worse right and we're dying because of despair so suicide opioid addiction uh cirrhosis of the liver amongst young adults second conviction is jesus founded the church to be the means by which the world's cry would get answered people to encounter the father's love come to know their identity as his beloved sons and daughters all the power the transformation of the holy spirit but the church is crying in so many ways right which we don't even need to go into but the third conviction is this and this is probably the thing that i might just want to really leave everybody with you're not alive right now by chance god could have created you and me to be alive in guatemala in the 8th century but he didn't he chose me to be alive right now and he's blessed me with natural and supernatural gifts and you with natural and supernatural gifts and i find so much comfort from joan of arc who's what i wear around my wrist who you know at one point in her life says i'm not afraid god is with me i was born for this and that's not just true of joan that's true of every single person right now you were born for this moment and in the in the middle of a world which is so riddled with anxiety and fear and discouragement and despair just to know you were born for now and you have nothing to be afraid of because god is with you and he has no rival amen amen thank you so much for spending your time with us uh if you would like more information you're able to get an article that was written by a father and just write the website which is on your screen that allows you to be able to receive that uh father just again want to thank you for being with us listening to and reading through your book i was struck with this desire this sense of gratitude right and i think the lord would knew that we would be in that place we just want to say thank you but like good news doesn't sound enough thank you it's like but when i think of what the lord has done for us and how he's intervened in our life and how he's intervened in our world and how he provides us it's like ah we just want to say thank you so like right now there's just this deep excitement in about an hour i get to celebrate mass you know it really no it's it's that it's that perfect thank you it's the only thank you that satisfies and and really allows us to encounter how often say when i celebrate mass particularly in a parish i said did you come here expecting your life to change and the reality is same thing most people don't but i think that the eucharist is this encounter with jesus that brings all that you've talked if if we've encountered the lord all that you've talked about alive so i i just want to say thank you for you but thank you to the lord and what he's done for us and just pray that that this reality would become the reality of all the people that have listened how about you close us with prayer father yeah be honored in the name of the father the son the holy spirit oh father as we just think about what father dave just said the line of the psalm just comes to mind what can we possibly give back to you for all that you have done for us and just as he said there that we would lift high the chalice of salvation let us be reminded every time we go to mass and all throughout every moment of the day just what it is that you've done for us and your son jesus fill us with gratitude move our hearts by the power of your spirit to surrender to give everything to you and send us out into the world as joyful and attractive witnesses the power of the gospel we ask it all in jesus name amen amen [Music] download a free handout on today's topic at faithandreason.com where you can also watch past episodes of franciscan university presents or request the handout by emailing us at presents franciscan.edu or reach us by phone for today's handout by calling [Music] 800-783-6447 that's 800 783 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

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Id: kFCyEK2vYPo

Length: 58min 34sec (3514 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021