Late Night With Fr. John Riccardo

hello if you're not aware we're in a rather particularly crisis in the church right I think this is akin to the 16th century personally this is a massive moment in the church and among the many we don't need to belabor the downsides the the upside of this if you will of what we're going through is it's reminding us that the church really only has one thing to offer anybody and the one thing to offer is Jesus it's to point to him and what he's done and increasingly so in the world in which we're living and in this culture in which we're living in which your kids are growing up a culture which is more and more riddled with despair if they don't know how to see the world they will fall prey to the despair you know this some of you have kids who's who have classmates and friends who've taken their lives the suicide epidemic in our country right now among young people is just that it is an epidemic the despair amongst our young people is off the chart it's frightening and it's because there is no hope in the world apart from God it shouldn't surprise us and you as we've said it every single one of these Friday nights that we've done our hands down there's not a close second the single most important pastor your son or daughter will ever have in their life whether they whether they they make you think that or not it really doesn't matter no one's close you set a spiritual glass ceiling especially dads for children with regards to faith and even more so for dads with their sons so what I want to try to do tonight is I'm hoping that as we go through this for those of us for whom it's somewhat familiar are very familiar you'll hear it again father Michael now we just talked about this I mean you have to hear something seven times before actually get it we know that for those of us in sales and we're in sales we just had the best product for those of us who for whom it's new I mean I can't encourage you enough to take notes because the goal of this isn't to simply memorize something or to hear something it's to learn how to reflect on the truths of the gospel to pray on them and then to interiorize them so that you can teach them to your kids so that you can then help them see reality as it is okay so that's what I'm hoping for tonight so I'll get to that line in a second this is how I always begin this so by the way I'm gonna do it we're gonna do a pilgrimage to Normandy September 2022 have you filed why cuz Normandy is I think the best place to begin for understanding the Incarnation so imagine we're in a high school class and I'm showing you these pictures so it's June 6 1944 right and I asked you this question and it's a multiple choice quiz option a the coffee in France is second to none who's voting for that like nobody right it might be true but that's not why they're there right option B they're dying to see the Mona Lisa option see the beaches in that area off the chart like no one's circle in any of these right option D think they're there to fight yeah of course right so they're there to go to war here's the problem I show you your kids brother priests that painting and ask the same question and I get almost as many answers as there are people in the room but the answer should come just as quickly and it should be the same answer he's there to fight so my experience again and again is we don't know the answer to this question which means when our kids ask us to help them understand the gospel we don't know where to start so what I'm offering you is a way to start and when we get asked questions about the faith by our peers whether it's at work or in our neighborhoods or in you know our kids sports teams whatever we don't really know what to do so we just don't say anything so I want to try to help us learn how to say what it is we should say to that this is again especially critical I think for parents more than anybody else more than for priests I share this with priests all the time I did this as a retreat for the clergy in a diocese I won't name so I was out there for like five days day three this guy comes up to me he's been ordained about the same amount of time as I have so 25 years or so and he says did you come up with this and I said come up with what he was with this kerygma thing I said No because you didn't he said no I've never heard this I got an email today for our text from a woman in our parish who's from another diocese she moved here and somehow she had shared maybe it was some version of this talk with a friend of hers who's a priest down in this diocese and he said something similar he just says you know like I love the Lord greatly I think of myself as an evangelist I think I'm living a good life as a priest I'm asking myself why did I'd never hear this in seminary so most priests don't know this they did they haven't heard this which means we don't hear it when we come to mass which means when our kids ask us basic questions about the gospel we often don't know where to start okay that makes sense so that's why we're here okay we're gonna try to start so here's the here's the goals tonight I want to proclaim the gospel to you let's come back here don't do that so I want to proclaim the gospel I want to try to give you new ways to teach and to preach and to share the gospel because all of you are called to preach and teach and share the gospel and maybe for those of us right now who just find ourselves discouraged because of what's going on in the church or in the world I want to give us I want us above all to leave here with what I would call unshakable confidence God is not nervous right now he's not looking down from heaven going oh my gosh he's just not anxious so if he's not anxious I don't need to be anxious I don't need to be anxious about my transition I don't need to be anxious about money I don't need to be anxious about my health you don't need to be anxious about your children because that's the devil's temptation to you is man your kids are living in the worst possible time in human history and you should be terrified no you shouldn't you should be unshakably confident in God because he has them and you and me in his hands and he doesn't have any rivals so the best place I know how to start is right here with st. Paul so Paul says this I'm not ashamed of the gospel he's not talking about Matthew Mark Luke and John right so we hear gospel especially as Catholics and we tend to think of the Gospels but the gospel small G is before the Gospels right the gospel was the proclamation of what it is that God has done for us so Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith so when he says power there the word that he's using in Greek is this word Dunamis from which we get the word dynamite in other words the gospel itself is explosive this is particularly encouraging for priests and for parents and for teachers because what it means is it really doesn't matter whether or not you or me are good communicators the gospel is power not the messenger of the gospel is power the content itself is explosive it's not ordinary news it's extraordinary news and all it takes is someone to deliver it you don't have to be the most gifted orator you just have to deliver it father Michael can testify to this it's amazing how many times people come up to us after mass and say father I just want to tell you when you said and then they'll say something like you know it just just like ripped right through me and and I know everything I say and I didn't say that like it's almost like God just said son I just need you to move your lips don't worry they're not gonna hear what you're saying I'm gonna be speaking we just have to deliver the content of the gospel and trust that God will do the rest so don't worry about I just feel ill equipped Moses stuttered God did okay things with him right don't worry about that just deliver it so the gospel is power so I equate it going back to Normandy to you and me living in France and we wake up on June 7th and I got a newspaper in my hands and you're sitting there at the table with it so Roland comes in you know I'm making a cup of coffee and he says hey yeah what happened yesterday I go uh Allies landed that wouldn't be how I would tell him that right we live in France occupied country got a tyrant ruling over us family members been killed countries destroyed people sent off to slavery this is not ordinary news this is extraordinary news right the Allies landed someone came to fight for us and to liberate us so that's that's the gospel only the gospel is infinitely more so than that so as you share the faith with your children with your peers this is not data we're handing on this is transformative news without which there is no hope and there's no meaning big deal you make a lot of money my dad made a boatload of money he's gone it was utterly impotent to stop my mom from dying scripture says do not put your trust in something as get a load of this line uncertain as wealth a dagger in the heart of an American where else is there certainty now wealth is uncertain it can go like that 2008 was not that long ago and some of us remember it well it goes in a flash it can't save me this news saves so technically speaking the Gospels called the keurig my where the kerygma we could say is the the essence of the gospel what's now John Paul describes it so he says the krugman is the initial ardent proclamation but which a person is one day overwhelmed and is brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith just think back for a second on whether you went to Catholic school or you went to religious ed how many of you in all honesty were over whelmed by the proclamation of the gospel I would say if five hands were to go up right now that would be four more than I would think you might have gotten overwhelmed by your parents testimony maybe I did but by the way the faith was taught to us almost nobody's overwhelmed it's just stuff they learn it's like it's just another subject it's like math or English the only problem is in most Catholic schools and in most Catholic religious education programs every single subject gets tougher except for religion which especially for a young boy growing up is code for there's nothing here you keep giving me the same lame answers every year I want meat so as you and I hear the gospel reflect on the gospel pray with the gospel in the way that I'm gonna try to break it open here the goal is for us to be overwhelmed by it to let God overwhelm us by it and then to share it most especially with those congregants that you have your children your parishioners in a way that they're overwhelmed and don't worry about whether or not they let on okay so tragically again I just don't think this is hell I don't think it's how we preach and I don't think it's how how people hear at another segments I shared this right before I think I saw Anthony I shared this with a young 24 year old girl she's not in our parish she came to see me don't know why or how she got to me we're sitting in a de Chapel talking she's beautiful extremely successful and her life was a mess and so she wanted to try to walk through some things and so I said can I just like I do this all the time can I just tell you how I see reality she goes yeah so I did this in about six minutes I got done she is bawling and she looks at me and says that's not the God I knew growing up I said well this is the real God so let's talk about him so what's the curricula the cream is this it's four parts so the goodness of creation sin in its consequences God's response to our sin and then our response to what God has done I think it's personally helpful to further break these things down into four words created captured rescued response so I shared this at a gathering of some folks out in Denver a friend of mine was there who's a just a great evangelist I asked for his critique afterwards he says that was really great Padre he says here's the problem it wasn't repeatable that's very helpful feedback thank you what would be repeatable here is you got to find some way to break this down for people but this is how I break it down for words so try it created captured rescued response try it without me that's the gospel it's that easy so we're gonna walk through especially the second and the third part I'm gonna touch quickly on the first the fourth part we spend the rest of our lives doing but it's the second the third part that I don't think usually people get right so for each each of these first three anyway as we reflect on because again the point of this is to take it and to go pray with it as we pray with each of these words or each of these four parts there's a grace for each one least I think there is so st. Ignatius some of us went to Jesuit schools Ignatius would always encourage people when we go to pray pray for a very specific grace like ask God for things so for me for each of these three parts I asked him for a grace to continue to try to grow in it more fully so the grace of the first part created is wonder and Trust the grace of the second part captured odd as it sounds is despair we'll talk about how to do that the grace of the third part rescued is unshakeable confidence so created Wonder and Trust captured despair rescued unshakable confidence so let's look at part one wondering trust so this comes in a particular way from trying to understand more fully the first eleven chapters of Genesis and most especially the first three so in a lot of different contexts like when we did rerouting for those of you who were here when we did that you know we spend a lot of time all we did was Genesis one two and three because I'm convinced you get these three chapters right you get everything right to get these three chapters wrong you get everything wrong so the challenge most people make when they Regenesis one to 11 is they read them literally they're not to be read literally they're to speak truth but they're not literal how do you know that there's two stories of creation in consecutive chapters and they're different and who knows what's made on the fourth day the Sun on the fourth day how do you get a day without a Sun you don't write it's like God's telling you hey dum-dum don't read this literally okay try to understand the truth that's being revealed without getting stuck in how can it be true not be literal I mean those of us who are you know Ellis and a majors we have no problem with this those of you who are engineers your mind is exploding right now so just deal with it there's things that are math is not the formula by which you understand the universe love is and love is poetic okay so oftentimes it's it's mistakenly thought that the stories in Genesis about creation are just like all the other stories in all the other ancient Near Eastern cultures there's nothing like the stories in Genesis in the stories of the ancient Near Eastern cultures in the ancient Near Eastern cultures there's a boatload of gods none of them any good they're all at war with each other at a certain point they make man the male to be a slave then they make the woman for one purpose children there's no there's no meaning to life which means no parts of life have meaning and so life is just totally despairing what are you do in a world like that you maximize pleasure and you minimize pain that's what I do it's what I did so what some of us did in here right into that world comes the revelation of Genesis and God says no there's actually one God and he's really good and everything that he made he made out of love not out of need and he made it without any effort whatsoever he just said let there be light and there was light and the highlight of everything that he made is the human person who alone is made in His image and likeness and the human persons made for freedom and for love and for friendship friendship with God friendship with each other the only way the person gets fulfilled is by being loved and loving in that order it's the only way you ever find happiness other things can bring fleeting pleasure diversion distraction whatever but they can't satisfy me one of the loneliest times I've ever had in my life was when I lived in Rome I'm surrounded by unbelievable beauty I lived there for four years I'm surrounded by beauty coming out of your ears right looking at history everywhere I'm a huge history buff I have nobody to share it with lonely as all get-out that's where I learned how to pray so we're made for friendship were made from more than just stuff huh so I just want to zero in real quick on one line in this because we wanna the grace here is Wonder and awe so scripture you know sometimes we read scripture we think because we think God speaks in an English accent very stoic Lee but he doesn't God is sheer joy we don't think of God that way God loves to play I mean he made us write God loves to play and scripture oftentimes is very comical without us knowing it I think this is one of those places where it is so Genesis 1:16 God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day that's the good even drunk that much the less I like to rule the night that's the moon right and so I picture you know whoever's putting Genesis down on parchment the Sun made the moon oh he made the stars too he made the stars too are you kidding me like that was a forgotten reality do you know many stars there are do you have a the universes the universe is 46 billion light years across that's 46 billion times five point eight eight trillion miles across at least it was this morning because it's ever expanding our galaxy is one of a hundred billion roughly galaxies in the universe each of which has roughly a hundred billion stars in them now my mind's exploding right like we're talking numbers who grasp these numbers right so I heard somebody describe this one time he says so let me try to give you an image a visual of how big the universe is this guy had a profession I still don't think I get the title right I think it was a high-energy particle physicist but those of you who are physicists know these things so so he's given a one time on the university said let me just try to help you grasp that number so imagine a sandcastle where every single grain of sand is a star if you made a sandcastle of the universe how big would the sandcastle be five miles high five miles high its tallest mountain on the earth five miles wide five miles long where every grain of sand is a star oh yeah he made the Stars forgot to mention that should probably tell you that no so there's the sandcastle huh another image so here's our Sun so our sounds a small star in the scheme of things you can put just just a little bit under a million earths inside the Sun I think it's like nine hundred and sixty thousand or so the largest star that we had found up until two years ago we've since found a bigger star is called the Big Dawg that's the Big Dawg all right yeah me you can fit inside the Big Dawg seven quadrillion not helpful so I say to Jojo I want you to count from one to a million and I'm gonna see him win twelve days I asked Paul Paul which count to one to a trillion and I will see you in 31 years and he's gonna count from one to a billion that's other way around right billion trillion I'm gonna see you in thirty one thousand years and I'm gonna count from now to one quadrillion and you will see me in 31 million years you can fit seven quadrillion earths inside the largest star he made that to forgot to mention it what was the big deal about this why is that so important because the one who made this who just said he didn't even say he just said look to be light he's the one who right now has your life in his hands he's got your son in his hands he's got your daughter in his hands he's got your spouse in his hands he's got this world in his hands he's got the church in its hands he has no rival he's not anxious don't be anxious whatever it is that's on your mind and whatever's on my mind and I can tell you there's a lot on my mind I haven't slept in weeks God can handle it I just need to surrender it stop trying to control it you don't have to control it just give it to him all right that's the wonder so this is where you know as you're saying this quickly with might be with your kids might be with peers whatever by the time you're done with this it's it begs an obvious question right the obvious question is well that sounds nice but how come everything is so obviously messed up and it's not usually put that nicely I mean the world has gone off the rail what happened if God's good and everything he made is good and he made it without effort and he's got everything in his hands how come children die of cancer how come my test results came back the way they did how come I lost my job how come I prayed for things I didn't get him how come I'm struggling with ongoing sin in my life that I can't stand mean how come everything is so screwed up that's the captured word so everything's screwed up because of an enemy so my experience is we tend not to get this part right at all if we even talk about sin anymore and its consequences usually people will say whether it's in religious head a Catholic school from a pulpit well the consequences of sin is separation from God and I don't know about you but when I was 8 9 10 18 28 if you would told me the consequence of sin was separation from God I went and so big deal that's not that moving that's true but that doesn't quite get to it the consequence of sin is you are both separated from God and you are in the possession of another this is what we would call the bad news and if you don't get the bad news right the good news is just news if you understand the bad news you understand why the good news is extraordinary news the bad news is more horrific than anything you have had in your worst nightmare some of us have either read or seen JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Tolkien got better than anybody else the mystery of evil evil is beyond our comprehension and it's in the world how did it get there if God's so good so we want to how to unpack this so we want to try to get clear on a couple different things about the enemy we want to learn his identity his reason for rebelling his strategy his goal for your life and the consequences of the fall okay so we do this pretty quick so his identity the reason for rebelling his strategy his goal for your life and the consequences of the fall so his identity so who is this creature this creature was an angel right so Lucifer was his name when God created him and he's created by God he's a creature his rival is not Jesus his rival is Michael that's why we pray the prayer of st. Michael okay Jesus Satan is a creature God can has and will again crush him like a toad he was created good his name means light-bearer he often hides himself as an angel of light it's why he deceives us so easily his reason for rebelling we usually don't get this rate we usually think that Satan's sin is pride which is true but it's not the reason for his rebellion scripture says this is the biblical answer for the rebellion of the enemy wisdom chapter 2 verse 24 through the envy of the devil death entered into the world and those who are in his possession experienced it what's envy it's more than jealousy what's envy yeah so it's a certain sadness over the good fortune of another right who's he envious of don't answer that just think to yourself you have to get this right or you don't understand it he's not envious of God he's envious of you he's envious of the human race why because God created the human race to be divinized one day and to share in his own abundant life which for an angelic mind at least his angelic mind is unfathomable and beneath him that you and I who are these creatures trapped in bodies angels don't have bodies not trapped in them they're just sheer intellects that we lowly as we are in comparison to them so he thought would be elevated above them and actually share in God's own divine nature one time at one time that's the end for which every human person was made that's why the church is such a champion of human dignity at all at stages from the moment of conception to the end because every human person has been created to be divinized so out of envy of us he goes to war against God's favorite creature which is us he doesn't go to war against God Satan knows he can't compete with God and he's like you have that I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure you don't keep it because I hate what you have that's his reason for rebellion what's his strategy a strategy is simple the strategy is to try to deceive us into thinking that God is not good that was at the heart of the first temptation tried to plant the seed and Adam and Eve's Mayans and it worked that gods holding out on you if he really loved you he'd let you have that he want that you have that he doesn't really love you and every time something happens in our lives a prayer that doesn't get answered for whatever reason something that doesn't happen in our lives that we were looking for disappointment of one kind or another he is right there in my ear saying and you still talk to this thing you still think he's good you think he's a father don't you get it he's not good he doesn't care he's not loving he's weak he's not even there that's his strategy that's why scripture talks so much about the enemy because scripture is game film it's trying to help us understand how the enemy acts so that we will be unguarded and and not only that we would know but especially his parents we would help our children to know how the opponent works right how many people in here coach yeah all right so we see a higher and higher and coaching and athletics right you use film I want to show you what we're going to face this week why because we want to win right they run this play Oh Satan has one play it's like off tackle every play and he gets like ten yards every play it's one play god is not good just know that I know it's a lie what's his goal here's his goal he comes to steal and to kill and to destroy his goal is to mock you for all eternity you pathetic man God offered you abundant life and you chose this wait till you see what I have waiting for you that's his goal what's the endgame so the consequence of sin is what I think we especially miss so the consequence of sin is the best way I've heard this explained his unknowingly right and some of you've heard me say this ad nauseam over the last year but unknowingly when Adam and Eve rebelled right when they fall it's a rebellion more than it's a fall when they turn their back on God and they disobedient to him refusing to listen to him refusing to trust him what they do although they didn't intend to do it is they sold our race because we're all in them if you will as we're like children of a crack addict right through no fault of its own the child is born with the addiction that's how we are so they sold our race into slavery against two powers that we can't compete against sin and death deaths pretty obvious right we've all lost loved ones here anybody bet in the bedside of a loved one as they were dying yeah talk about a feeling of impotence right understanding it my mom's bed in our house in September watching her go and I can't do anything my sister's can't do anything she's just going death is a power the other powers sin so we tend to think of sin if we think of it at all as things that we do or don't do or things that we say or don't say that's true but before it's that sin is a capital S it's a power it's a it's a Dominion Paul talks about it this way Romans 6 he says just hang under this last line that we might no longer be enslaved to sin when he's saying that he's writing that really with a capital S so again sin is this malicious it's like a government that's that's how Paul describes it and it's trying to continually exercise control over me and apart from God it has control over me the easiest way to prove this like how many people have said something like this in their lives I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do like have you ever done something that you hate doing that you don't want to do that you know you shouldn't do and yet you do like all day long right you ever wonder why this is why because sins a power it's trying to control me which is why it's not enough simply to repent from sin like I need someone to rescue me from the power of sin on my own I can't do it the single most provocative way I know how to pray about this is this image and the reality behind this image this is where when I share this especially with young women they cry because in one way or another they get this perhaps in a way that men don't sow the grace here that you want to ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand or to have to help you to experience is despair now to be clear on that the reason for that is I want to ask God to help me understand that if he had not done something I would have no hope at all at all so the consequence of sin is like being captured by a trafficker this horrific scourge that plagues our world more slaves today than there have been in the history of the world so you prey with this we talked about this for those of us in the parish back at the beginning of Lent you know pray with imagine what it would be like to be have been captured chained used exploited abused with no way to get out that's the bad news that was us that's the consequence of sin doesn't make sense that's is why the message of the gospel is so urgent because there's no hope apart from this it's why it's so crucial for us to share the gospel with our kids or peers or whatnot because whether they whether they let on or not sooner or later this is how we all feel I feel stuck and I don't know I don't see a way out and there is no way out apart from God which brings us to the third word so the third word is what rescued write the grace here is unshakable confidence so what did God do in response so there's way too much to try to grasp here so let's just zero in on the passion and especially so we've done this here many times over the last you know six months or so maybe especially so again in Holy Week this past week this is especially important for those of you who have sons because most young boys are most young men and most men for that matter tend to think of Jesus as soft he's kind and he is blessed be God and he's gentle and he is blessed be God and he's merciful than he is blessed be God he's all those things but Jesus is absolutely utterly unconquered he is the hands-down greatest athlete of all time that's why it's painted on the wall down there outside our gym there is no one who remotely compares to him so why did they land they landed to fight why did God become a man he became a man to destroy the works of the devil that's why he came a man he didn't come to tell stories although he told him he didn't come to do miracles although he did him he didn't come to do anything else he came to destroy the works of the devil he came to set us free so Jesus himself talks about this in lots of different places in lots of different ways so John 12 now the judgment of this world the ruler of this world is cast out this is right before he enters into his passion but the passage more than any other passage that I find worth reflecting on for this it's found in Matthew Mark and Luke here's Luke's version of it Jesus says Jesus has been accused of driving out demons by by Satan so he tells this parable to the people who are accusing them of this he says when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are in peace so let's make sure we understand this parable who's the strongmen yeah Satan what's his palace the world who is good us see whether you know it or not before you got baptized cute as you might have been you were born into the kingdom of sin and under the tyranny and the Dominion of Satan and you had no hope it's like your passport said I belong to the kingdom of darkness he's the ruler of this world my baptism isn't a cute little thing that we do its transformation from one kingdom to another kingdom from one rule to another rule from a tyrant to a benevolent dictator if we can call God that but when someone's stronger than he assails him and overcomes him he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil who's the ones stronger than him Jesus is right so Jesus comes to bind Satan so that you and I can go free the the very first miracle that Jesus does is the driving out of a demon it's not insignificant so there's this demon who's possessing a man and all Jesus says to this demon is silence come out of him it's actually more literally be muzzled or be gagged this is God talking to the enemy began there's no wrestling match there's no big huge fight there's just be gagged and Satan's like mMmmm because there's no competition here so this is why he came second person of the Trinity is the invasion the incarnation of the second person the Trinity is the invasion of one kingdom the kingdom of darkness by another Kingdom the kingdom of light which is stronger but here's the key in order for this to happen God disguises himself because Satan won't fight God because he knows he has no chance so God hides himself in human flesh to go to war to rescue you because that's what you mean to him and the passion is the place where we see this most especially so I asked this several times over the last number of months I know but just just look at him for a second and ask yourself and then do this with your kids right so as Jesus on the cross don't ask answer this out loud just hear how stupid this question sounds is Jesus on the cross the victim or the aggressor is this happening to him or is he doing something looks pretty obviously like he's the victim right he's not the victim who's Jesus God right what do you get that nail like really where do you get that meal how do you how do you nail God to a cross there's no kryptonite right there's only one way God can get on a cross he has to want to be there now why in the world would God want to be on a cross this little thing is the answer Jesus I'm that on the cross is hunting this this is something that I feel like the Lord showed me last year in a brand new way which I've just been encouraged to see is one of the most powerful ways in the most popular way that the early church used to talk about The Passion of Jesus the image this thing is what you would technically call an ambush predator so I I'm praying in the chapel we had masks last year in the school it was a Friday morning it was like the the Wednesday or the Friday before Holy Week and I'm sitting there praying not thinking about any of this and out of nowhere I just hear the Lord because I know his voice no he just heard these two words ambush predator I've never heard of an ambush predator in my life so my phones with me I you know ask dr. Google okay what's an ambush predator and I start reading this thing and I just start to laugh right so an ambush predator is is something that looks like that it's it's a creature it could be in the garden they could be in your house they're in your house they're in the water than the woods back there they lie motionless and still camouflage with their environment all for one purpose to attract the and then when the prey gets close they jump on it Yeah right this is the ambush predator from the moment of his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus starts to sweat blood then allows himself to be arrested chained slapped spit on stripped naked scourge beaten to a pulp crowned with thorns laughed at this is God we're talking about made to carry a cross nailed to a cross what's happening Jesus is more and more and more and more camouflaging his divinity all so that the enemy will get close so it's a it's not a real encouraged thing to do but imagine imagine death just kind of standing in front of Jesus on the cross or Satan standing in front of Jesus on the cross and I picture that conversation goes something like this you know son you are rather unique you do extraordinary things but I've seen miracles before and you don't sin but that woman over there at the foot of the cross she doesn't send either and then a picture I'm looking at his watch saying something like but you realize don't you in just a few minutes you're mine cuz no one escapes death and that's exactly what Jesus wants to happen he takes from us what he can't he can't do what's the one thing God can't do he can't die so he takes from us the capacity to die so as to enter into hell to bind the strongman to liberate his possessions so that we can go free this is unbelievable stuff people this makes Marvel Comics look weak this is what God thinks you're worth doing for so there's been three kind of classical ways of understanding what Jesus does in the cross first is on the cross he's showing me how much God loves me which is true by all means that moves a number of us in here others of us it just doesn't even faze but it's true right God so loved the world he sent His only begotten Son second way of understanding the cross is Jesus on the cross is making atonement for our sins true right pierced for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities that moves fewer of us quite honestly most of us just don't think we're that bad but it's true the classic way of understanding what Jesus is doing on the cross is he's going to war so here's how a couple of the early Christian writers put it st. Irenaeus says this Jesus waged war is so you don't think this is just my kind of crazy ideas Irenaeus is writing in the late second beginning of the third century Jesus waged war against our enemy in crushing him who at the beginning led us away captives and atom and trampled on his head as you can learn in Genesis when God said to the serpent I will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and hers he shall he shall be on the watch for your head and you shall be for his heel for from that time he who would be born of the woman that is from the Virgin after the likeness of Adam was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent pretty clear right you said up step on the head of the serpent it dies serpent bites you you get a bite Origen who's also writing in the third century for when Christ had bound the strongman and triumphed over him by means of the cross he even advanced into his house of death in the underworld and from there he plundered his possessions that is he led away the souls which the devil was keeping this is what he was preaching about in an enigmatic way in the gospel when he said and then that's that passage we looked at earlier st. Augustine last one this is a great image the devil was conquered by his own trophy of victory the devil jumped for joy because remember he hates us when he seduced the first man Adam and cast him down to death by seducing the first man he slew him but by slaying the last man Jesus he lost the first from his snare and so Augustine continues the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ came when he rose and ascended into heaven then was fulfilled the Lion of the tribe of Judah has won the day the devil jumped for joy when Christ died but by the very death of Christ the devil was overcome he took as it were the bait in the mousetrap that's how a Gustin talks about the cross Jesus is the bait here kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty and the moment that Satan bites the bar comes crashing down in his head and he's despair is destroyed so what's the result of all this I'll try to wrap this up then we can take a quick break take some questions if we want to so let me let me focus on just two passages they're both in Colossians Colossians 1 this is what happens in baptism this is why baptism is so essential he God has delivered us from the Dominion or the rule or the authority or the governance of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of our sins in other words so what the enemy if you're baptized like the enemy has no control over you I don't belong to you I have control over you because the one who's in me whooped you so do I sin often you better believe it do you absolutely why because we got habits and we got memories but I don't have to sin and neither to you actually which is a really sobering thought like I don't have to sin because the power of the risen Jesus is in me and is in you so your kids are battling fear anxiety so you teach them what you teach them like something as simple as this in the name of Jesus I take authority over this spirit of fear or anxiety and I rebuke you and I bind you and I cast you to the foot of the cross the one who destroyed you you want to give a young boy a rush tell him to pray that I don't belong to you you don't any hold on me I'm free from you the other passage is the one that I've been praying with a lot over the last set of months so Paul says this about what's what's happened so God disarmed the principalities and powers more literally he stripped naked humiliated disrobed the principalities and powers who are the principalities and powers death sin Satan and hell and is made of them a public spectacle so he's no way to translate that would be he's exposed them to contempt put him to shame triumphing over them in him or by his cross so triumph is a very particular word in the Roman Empire it's only a triumph is a mega parade in an empire of mega parades it's held in very rare occasions and for very precise conditions and it would look something like this so a triumph for example was held by Julius Caesar after he finally defeats the king of Gaul which lasted for eight years so Gaul wherever Gaul is Right northern Italy or southern France or wherever so he defeats this King they're finally done here's Caesars seated on his throne surrounded by his Legion they captured the king they bring him up in front of him one of the Legionaries comes over strips him with a knife and suddenly the king of all is standing naked in front of the whole Roman legion then they forced him to his knees they take an eagle which is the emblem of Rome they put it in front of his mouth to make them kiss it which is the way of saying you lost they stand him up they tie his hands behind his back they chained him they put him in a cage and they begin to parade back to Rome this is a triumph and then into Rome comes Caesar riding this chariot it's surrounded by all his soldiers all these possessions that he's captured and at the end of the line is a man and a cage with no clothes on chained with a sign above his head and the sign says this is the one who used to threaten us he won't threaten us anymore that's what Jesus has done to Satan and Satan knows it now why is it still so bleak out if all this has happened cuz back to d-day we live in this gap if you will between d-day and VE Day so d-day is June 6 1944 from that moment on the war in Europe is over and everybody knows it Hitler knows that everybody knows it but the war doesn't end for 11 months more right then comes Victory in Europe and at least in the European continent it's over a lot of death in between from the moment of the resurrection of Jesus that's d-day until the Lord comes back we're living in that gap between those two celebrations and the enemy knows his time is short and he is prowling like crazy looking for someone to devour most especially parents cuz if he can devour parents he gets their kids the collateral damage is huge so we don't be naive and saying hey this is great it's just gonna be a cakewalk from here on it's not but what's important is to realize that the one who's entrusted these young ones into your hands and the one who sent you out unto mission he's the one who just did that to the enemy and he's the one who's with you at every step of the way and because he is not to be anxious not to be afraid let's be nervous I just have to be on guard and I want to do everything I can to try to equip my children how to see reality so that they will know when things go wrong and they will go wrong why they go long and why it is that in the midst of it we still have infinite reasons to have confidence and hope and God and especially what he's done for us in Jesus

Channel: OLGCPlymouth

Views: 8,137

Rating: 4.9537573 out of 5

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

Id: EzdNtvSjpLI

Length: 61min 12sec (3672 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019