Livesplaining - Why Faith? + Q&A

hello and welcome to live splitting i'm father gregory pine joining you from freeburg switzerland i'm here with father jacob bertrand janczyk and our own very our very own i probably should get the order right uh washington d.c father jacob bertrand howard thanks things are great i think uh yeah things are good nothing nothing terribly new going on so just again dealing with the oppressive dc heat like whenever i walk through the building especially in the morning all the windows are totally like they're not it's not fog i don't know condensated is that a word totally you can't see outside so it's just like you can't see anything so it's swamp city it's great um i like so the way that you began you said something to the effect of like good i think which i feel is an accurate representation of the way in which most people feel about their lives because you know we in catholic circles in christian circles we talk a lot about happiness uh but i don't know how often we are conscious of whether or not we are happy you know like life's just it's a lot of spade work you're just kind of chugging along doing your tasks trying to get your inbox close to zero trying not to make unnecessary fuel stops if you're me trying to make fuel stops every time your tank goes below half if you're you um but uh yeah but then the yeah like to ask the question am i happy that's fascinating i don't know exactly what that even mean um i probably should admit to that seeing as we talk about happiness a good deal and pretend to know what it means yeah it's great um it is the gas thing is a real issue that you just mentioned fella gregory and i are great travel companions and as much as we have absolutely opposite desires and and tastes in all things one of them being when it's time to gas up the tank uh father gregory likes to let it roll into the gas station on neutral when there's no gas left and as soon as it drops off the full line for me i'm i start to kind of look up a gas station so it's great oh man i think about it in this way if you're refilling your tank frequently you're spending more time at gas stations and you're spending less time traveling slash you know dominating as it were um so i once learned that when the gas light goes on you have at least another 35 miles so i try to test that hypothesis as often as possible one time i i think the gas light went on i was on 95 southbound from my parents house around exit 37 and the gas light went on and i said oh i'll just fill up at that rest station in the middle of the highway on 95 in southern delaware not really doing the math at that point so i think it's 60 miles to that i ran out of gas my parents came with a gas can it was a wonderful encounter but um yeah it's really it's really only me once i've also learned that you have about at least 35 miles once you get to half a tank so i have the same kind of thought process going on it's just a different edition subtraction game yeah so it's good it's great yeah it's the same it's yeah it's just the same um okay so the theme for this year episode is why faith uh we have titled it ambiguously so that way we can talk about anything and get away with it without fear of consequence so uh father jacob bertrand maybe just to set us up uh can you give a little working definition of the type of faith that we're describing here are we talking about the faith like why believe in the trinity and the incarnation are we talking about um like trusting one of your close friends are we talking about something else what are we talking about um all of those things and more we're talking about it all in the span of the next seven minutes so hang on it's gonna be a ride what we're talking about when we i guess what we what we're meaning to talk about is particularly um the virtue of faith and knowing by faith um and then sort of reacting to that so perhaps talk about those three things and as much as i just listed them and have now forced us to talk about those three things so uh when we when we look at when we when we talk about faith and think like why faith and what is faith not so much as father gregory was listening the faith like the you know the faith of the church but away by knowing um or way by by acting and living is what i think we're talking about when we say things about the virtue of faith so if we look at the virtues uh the and the theological virtues in particular faith hope and love faith being one of the three faith is that virtue that perfects the intellect now all virtues have an object they have something that they're they're aimed at doing something that they're aimed at kind of perfecting through grace and faith is that virtue that perfects the intellect and in so much that it perfects the intellect or makes them it makes us able to know things um well uh it in as much as it clears away the what sin clouds in our ability to know it allows us to have knowledge of the things of god and more more specifically of of god himself so the virtue of faith the object of faith is god himself knowing god himself believing the one who speaks believing truth and the things of god and then we could also say that faith um helps us to then interact with god because our our knowledge is not some so we're not like just like brains in like a glass jar you know our knowledge moves our will knowing something helps us to love and desire it more and pursue it more so it helps us to pursue god in the things of god and live the christian life so when we're talking about faith that's what we're talking about the the way by which we know the means by which we know god and the things of god set that up a little bit let's do it there you go um so when saint thomas talks about faith he talks about an interior dimension and an exterior dimension father jacob bertrand described that interior dimension beautifully so it's an intellectual habit so a habit of the mind whereby we hear god who speaks and reveals himself and who sheds light on all things in light of who he is and but there's also this exterior dimension to faith so as belief is to the interior life so confession is to the exterior life and when we talk about confession we're saying you know giving testimony giving witness so there is a god who has revealed himself in history he has given me to know him and i will i will explain that or i will witness to that as the occasion presents itself um when it comes to confession of faith what are your thoughts about this we were talking earlier about our different approaches to talking to people in airports your approach is never my approach is uh not much but maybe i don't know maybe we should be more bold maybe we should be more evangelical on our approach what are the what are the occasions on which we are called to testify to our faith what are the occasions in which we ought to give a reason for our faith yeah i i guess i would distinguish here make a distinction between a sort of passive testimony or passive witness and an active witness or testimony and i don't even mean passive in the sense that it's being done to us or we aren't doing something but passive in the sense that it's that our living of the faith itself bears witness to the faith so simply living uh living what the church teaches you know living going to mass on sunday is wearing something that has um you know some sort of uh symbol of the faith whether that's a crucifix or you know carrying a rosary on us or those kind of things that that witness of the faith living and responding in ways in christian ways to the world around us i remember one of our classmates uh told the story once of he he sat down with somebody he was he was in college and the the cafeteria was super busy and he sat down with somebody and they you know he wasn't totally into practicing his faith at the time and when he sat down with this stranger where there was just a seat left he this person was catholic and sort of blessed himself before eating and it had a real impact on on him and his kind of witness to the faith so these little things that um kind of i don't know uh insert these catholic things that insert themselves into the world that we live just by living the faith so that's what i mean by passive and then active i think is when we're we're called to respond either in defending the faith or teaching the faith when someone asks a question or someone says something um and sort of in intellect not an intelligible kind of criticism or stupid criticism of the faith you know to respond charitably and well um in those moments um to talk with people to invite people to to mass to investigate things those sort of things so the here that what always comes to mind and witnessing to the faith is the sacrament of confirmation because those graces which we receive being sealed with the with the holy spirit in that sacrament of confirmation that gives us the ability to sort of live especially that active part of sharing the faith uh really well it's interesting when so giving witness to the faith it's like a positive precept so you should give witness to the faith but it's different than a negative precept like you shall not kill because you're able to fulfill a negative precept always and in every circumstance you're always fulfilling it regardless of whether you are asleep or awake regardless of whether you are daydreaming or i don't know engaged in heated conversation you're able to fulfill that precept of not killing somebody um maybe i should have picked nah that's a great one um but then in the case of testifying to your faith because it's a positive precept you're not able to fulfill it at all times because you go to sleep because you daydream um i don't know because ah you take bike rides or because you throw in airpods every once in a while and walk around the city of freeburg and practice speaking a language that you stink at so you stink at it less hypothetical example um right uh so you're so you're not able to testify to it in this kind of active way at all times so then the question becomes when do you do it saint thomas will say you got to be prepared in spirit spirit to do it so that when occasion arises you can recognize it and he likens it actually to loving your enemies so for instance what does it mean to love your enemies it means habitually to will that they know love and serve god and enjoy them in the next life but you don't have to do too terribly much when it comes to you know practicing that on a daily basis you might pray for them you might make small sacrifices for them uh you might not but then when it comes time you need to have been living your life in such a way that you recognize the occasion and then are able to seize upon the occasion for acting charitably and i think it's it's similar uh with the life of faith so then the question arises how do we practice or how do we rehearse for those moments when we are called upon to testify what are some daily habits small things that we can do to be prepared yeah like with when we talk about faith and being prepared because it is a virtue it's something that is is habitual and when we talk about the virtues as father gregory was saying there are times when the virtues are sort of waiting to be put into action and then being put into action and when they're waiting we can still practice we can still make what especially with faith uh there's we can make acts of faith so uh first and foremost simply living living our faith is a way by which we grow in the faith by committing ourselves to that to that rhythm of you know going to mass every week taking time to pray like um why why though well because it's in investing in these and these practices of of living as a catholic that actually require us to believe in in god and what he says that in in doing these things we receive his grace we are conformed to him and grow closer to him and we're led to our to our eternal reward god willing in the end so doing these things themselves our little practice our little uh yeah little exercises of living the faith that then build up this this disposition to um to to witness and to to to enter into these bigger moments of like witnessing and acting in the faith so just living the faith is one way calling upon our lord's name and moments of doubt or trust or in moments when we need to trust that sort of thing is is a great thing um and because faith is an intellectual virtue it shapes the mind it's also good to feed the mind with with you know things of god so whether that's you know in conversation or in reading or in study or these sort of things they all contribute to our being more conformed to christ so as to respond well in our own lives and give witness to other people whether in conversation or deed or whatever it might be so a question arises from me like what's the setting or what's the context in which you can give witness because certainly you know many of us live a considerable amount of our times on the internet uh whether that be through you know these types of things on youtube or social media and we're trying to have i think we're trying to have fruitful exchanges with other people um and sometimes the internet works for that sometimes it doesn't it strikes me though that the setting the proper setting for faith is interpersonal right it's it's you and another person and uh there's something that happens in that exchange you know it's not like it's a magic moment or sparks fly but there's something about being present to another human person um and and giving witness to something that is at the very core of your being or something that you care about in a way that surpasses all understanding which i think is very on the one hand very humanizing and also very supernaturalizing to just make up words um so i guess how do you how do you personalize these encounters um because there i mean there can be a kind of tendency to drift towards the impersonal uh towards the abstract how do we work on personalizing our encounters with other human beings such that we're we're present to them and we're not just a witness kind of in general but they were like a real credible witness we're a real concrete witness we're a witness who was given to them in a particular way yeah that's a good question um i think it's easy especially when we're talking about the faith and usually when we when we say we're talking about the faith we're talking about defending the faith against some sort of antagonistic reality um and in those moments it's easy to look at the opponent as an impo as an opponent or someone to to sort of win against or someone that really becomes just an object to beat not like to beat up but like you know the the humanity of of the of the other person involved especially online and social media and stuff it's like so easily removed there but even in face-to-face interactions because it can be so easy to focus on just winning and and getting the last word in in um and saying the smarter thing or the more put together thing or whatever um so really i think focusing on the fact that when we talk about the faith when we witness to the faith actively passively whatever it might be where like what is the end you know consider what the end is of that conversation of that post online of that reply to that post online oh you know whatever it might be what is the end it's it's actually you know it should it's not winning an argument but it's it's winning souls and winning souls has to do with winning people for christ making the faith a petable through the way by which through the ways by which we act and talk and speak about the faith that doesn't mean dumbing it down or making like you know jesus some kind of like fluffy thing that everybody can get with and be happy around and just like kumbaya no but the truth in itself is attractive but presenting it in such a way that that opens people's hearts rather than shuts people down and you can only open that open hearts if you're talking to people not just to objects or someone to like you know win in some sort of intellectual debate conversation fight or jab or that sort of thing boom all right well um this is you know some some things to think about some things to consider as we seek to grow in our own lives of faith both in the interior dimension of belief and the exterior dimension of confession uh and certainly these life-spanning episodes are a way by which for you please god to grow in your faith so we're happy to answer your questions and feel free to drop them into the chat we're going to start with a handful of questions from some patreon patrons so we're grateful to our patreon patrons for um yeah contributing to this work making it more visible and hopefully more available to those um who are coming on the internet or you know coming on podcast apps to seek something of the proclamation of the faith so father jacob is going to drop a couple in the chat but i'll just take one from the end of the list here that we have in front of us um so ben hutchinson asks if it's not too controversial i was wondering which of the church's teachings you personally find the most difficult to submit your will to that's a real real question and uh i dig it so honestly i think that as is the case with any human institution i think a lot of us are tempted to think that we know better we know best um and my experience of this is it's especially true in my case because i'm a little prideful punk um so submission of any sort is difficult but uh the hierarchical church is hierarchical and as a result of which there are things over which you have no competence so your opinion is not solicited and your you know what you might think to be your very excellent talents are not drawn upon in making those decisions so i think um yeah the the structure of the church is hierarchy in the jurisdiction uh which kind of issues from that is something that that i find difficult but obviously when you choose against that you're in drift and uh yeah so you've got to stay home i don't know if you want to answer that feel free to pass but those are my initial thoughts yeah um i don't i don't know when i was reading the question earlier nothing came to mind that i yeah nothing really came to mind but that just might be because i don't know i don't know why so nothing comes to mind immediately at least to give a good response so i should have just passed but i didn't so there you have it hey you pass with sincerity so cheers to you um all right uh maybe just to work up from our next question from a uh from a patreon patron so michael lice asks are we called to correct those who use the name of god when cursing or disappointed i talked to a manager i'm close with about this and he was very respectful and made conscious efforts to refrain from doing this at my place of work i hear my co-workers do this repeatedly throughout the day i'm not particularly close to any of them and i don't know if this is a matter of fraternal correction or a moral responsibility what do you think you want to take that first sure yeah um so i would say yes and no um yes in the sense that you know there is a responsibility uh to um yeah to call out to correct those who are an error or those who are um using the lord's name in vain in this circumstance so yeah there is there is a responsibility there but prudence also plays a part in in adjudicating whether or not like this situation this moment this um setting is appropriate for that and one of the things often with these questions of correction um what comes to mind are the the advice that we were given when we first entered the order with respect to fraternal correction correcting you know our peers in the order and there were three things there one is what the person is doing sinful um is it you know does it warrant a correction and that sort of thing or is it just like an annoyance two is there the foundation to have um a conversation about correction because you know it's like i i'm you know father gregory i'm sure is happy to correct me and i'm happy to correct him and because like we've lived to you know in the same religious community and together for you know over a decade now there's we can we can do that and and do that with some ease um uh but like me walking down the street and hearing some somebody swear curse on the street and me just saying hey stop swearing you know that that's obviously a different interaction and then thirdly is is is that is it um is is there sort of an expectation or a hope for change uh you know is the correction going to help the situation so sometimes the answer to those might be known it still might be warranted but other times it might make you know the work situation a kind of unbearable reality if if you're kind of going around policing what people are saying that sort of thing um so perhaps perhaps there is a space to offer a sort of correction to you to your co-workers or even just kind of your own witness to not using foul language or using the lord's name in vain and that sort of thing might be enough to draw attention to the fact that you know this is not the best thing to be doing and ultimately like insulting to our lord and bad for your soul um so it's really prudence there i think that that kind of has the say and and dictates uh the best response so boom i have nothing substantial to add i'm going to bop now to our another question from a patreon patron uh we just put in here so barbara asks what principles should govern decisions on whether or not certain morally bad behavior should be illegal for example euthanasia assisted suicide etc so yeah you may have heard it said that saint thomas will say that not everything that is bad should be made illegal and the reason for that is law the the end of law is the common good and the common good can become in a certain sense like overburdened by the minute adjudication of small moral claims um and so it tries to kind of govern on what should be curtailed always or for the most part um so as to provide for a just social order but there are certain things which so grievously offend the common good um which which common good is especially present in the lives of the innocent um you know so like you think about unborn children for instance uh a kind of icon of innocence i mean that's to speak about it in a way that's abstract like unborn children are as innocent as you come right um so so to pursue legislation that would curtail the practice of abortion for instance would seem to pertain it does pertain immediately and urgently to the common good and uh questions of you nation's assisted suicide are of a similar sort because especially you know when a lot of the argumentation that surrounds assisted suicide is that once you have voluntary assisted suicide for those who are competent uh for those who are you know have a terminal illness for those who whatever conditions you try to use to make the practice um infrequent it's always like the slippery slope always takes takes effect and then you're going to have it practiced or visited upon people who aren't competent to make the decision who don't have terminal illnesses who are being diagnosed with things which are kind of vague and fuzzy and not strictly medical and that seems you know it does imperil the common good in a way that's disastrous and of course you know life from conception to death um is is worthy of the defense of the polity so i think that um what you're the type of consideration that you're taking into account is does this pertain to the common good if so in what sense is it legislatable right um and is it something that can actually take effect is it practicable all right so those are some initial questions from some of our patreon patrons and now we're going to bop to the top and answer a few that have come up in the chat so here we go from christina mussat hi fathers i have a crippling fear of the reality of death ever since a child how do i reconcile faith with the possibility of god not existing i feel as if this is the main source of my fear she continues i'm very much convinced by the arguments in favor of the existence of god but although i rationally ascent to god's existence i struggle with actually ascending to this in my heart you have some thoughts father jacob bertrand yeah um i too have a fear of death so you're you're not alone sometimes i think like um dying would be you know i'm ready for heaven and then other times i think uh um probably not yet but so i'm there too i think this uh one of the things that comes to mind one of the yeah one of the realities here that that comes to mind is what you mentioned is is this faith but also hope the virtue of hope and um being conformed and pursuing the the things that god promises namely eternal life salvation um and here i often think of the prayer um from the man who came to to our lord to request our lord's healing for his child and when he prays and in the gospel of mark it's mark 9 i believe i believe lord help my unbelief i think it's a really lovely little short prayer because it does two things one it acknowledges that that there is belief there you know as as you said that there's like some ascent to what god is and who god is but also that like our belief and our hope is it needs needs room to grow and is is weak and is not sufficient um so i i like that prayer and i use it a lot and i adjust it a lot for different things you know so you could certainly pray for belief i believe lord help my unbelief but like i hope in you lord help me to hope in you more you know adjust it for what you need i think that's those are those are great um that's a great little prayer um i was just going to say something else here but it immediately slipped to my mind which is terribly unfortunate especially when i'm answering a question so if i remember in father gregory's comments i'll add it to you but um i think praying for the increase of those virtues is is really oh i remember uh so i'll cut father gregory off um also recognizing that the church too see it and and through our lord that our lord recognized that that death is a difficult uh reality for for for people um and in that gave us a sacrament that is that is aimed at giving us those special graces in those moments of death or or extreme sickness namely in the sacrament of the anointing of the sick um so it's it's not as if we're just sort of left to our own devices you know the church and our lord through the sacraments and through the dispensation of grace to the sacraments is also there to assist us so in a sense um belief there and confidence there is not something that we simply have to muster up on our own you know the churches is there to help too so there's hopefully that's a little bit of a consolation in that i just have one small thing to add um saint thomas talks about fear in the context of the gift of the holy spirit fear of the lord which he associates with the virtues of hope and temperance and in the treatise on hope he talks about it at great length and he describes a kind of ladder of fears which the human soul might ascend the first he calls like a kind of worldly fear where you fear losing the good things that you enjoy on earth and that he says is sinful so we don't want to get caught up in that the next he says is a kind of servile fear where you fear punishment right and with respect to god you'd fear the punishment of hell the punishment that comes with your sins and he says this is you know a good thing in a certain sense and so far as it motivates us to you know uh heal and grow beyond habitual sin and to work in accord with grace and he said ultimately matures into what he calls filial fear or chaste fear which is a kind of fear motivated by the fact that you wouldn't want to perpetrate some moral ugliness against god because you know god to be so beautiful and so i think that if you have the seed of fear uh while it can be psychologically very distressing you might pray that the lord would heal it and elevate it so to grow your servile fear into a chaste affilial fear that would ultimately fear not so much the punishments um attendant upon sin but that would have fear any wound that you might do to your relationship with god so that's a small thought all right here we go next question is from is here hallelujah who is the queen of catholic livestreams so cheers to you thanks so much for coming um all right pitipatta says hey fathers god confirmed into the church about a month ago and wanted to share the good news been reading st thomas's commentary on the gospel of john and it has been quite fruitful continued the commentary is great for a deep dive on the gospel account of john my scriptural knowledge in a more wide scope sense is a bit lacking any advice on reading and praying with scripture thoughts um that's great that you're reading thomas's commentary on the gospel sometimes i think we talk this is like not a thought in your question it's just a thought and father asked for my thoughts so this is my thought but we often i think immediately think of saint thomas as from with with respect to the summa um but really thomas was obviously wrote this when it's great but he was also a um he was i think would have thought of himself as a scripture scholar a commentator on the scriptures a lot of his work on uh his his lecturing was on commentary in the scriptures and stuff like that so that's if you really want to i think get it at some of the the beautiful writings of thomas tsum is awesome i'm not dissing the zuma but his scripture commentators can be really great um i as far as getting into scriptural things broadening that that knowledge i really like looking at like study bibles the new american study bible or the ignatius press yeah the ignatius press revised standard version their rsv new testament study bible that one in particular is great they have you know they have introductions both the new american and the rsv the ignatius press have good introductions to like the historical setting of the books and the authorship and dating and those kind of things but also commentary on the verses so as you're reading through you know there there's commentary and connections being made to the old testament references and these kind of things kind of put the whole picture together bishop baron also has their the word on fire bible that came out i don't know maybe a year ago something like that which is also a study bible a commentary so um as far as like new places it starts with the scripture itself those are those i find to be super helpful um i don't know that i have anything real substantial to add so rather than just puddle around in a half response i'll just bow to the master all right here we go nightingale says regarding the communion of saints are all persons who get to heaven called saints so if everyone is called to be a saint will you still be a saint even if you went through purgatory answer yes so when you think about it saint just means you're holy and all those who go to heaven are permanently holy so all those who go to heaven are saints now whether you arrive there directly without passing go or collecting 200 or whether you take a few trips around the proverbial monopoly board that is purgatory uh you will still have arrived at a kind of permanent state of sanctity so both are saints here we go karen shannon says isn't faith also a gift from god father jacob bertrand yes uh yeah it is um we can talk about the the sort of different ways by which the virtues are given or acquired or built up but ultimately yeah the bottom line is that the theological virtues are gifts given from given from god now because we are because we are free um and because we have a free will in our call to cooperate with the grace that god gives uh he offers the gift of faith and he allows us to cooperate with those graces so by making acts of faith by living the faith these kind of things so even though god gives the gift it's something that can be that that can grow and expand and be perfected um by our cooperation so um it's good to recognize though that that you know a gift can is something given but it's also something that can be um denied uh so people can be offered the gift of faith and deny that gift of faith um or we can deny it for some time or not participate in it so well you know so it's this whole um this whole kind of um i guess our resp like i was gonna say personal responsibility and that sounds so kind of like new agey and blah blah yeah like contemporary and stupid but um there is a real kind of like our own responsibility in in cooperating with that gift of faith and not wasting it i guess is a way to say it not as kind of like a finger wagging moralism like you better not use this stupidly but um you know that we're we are given the the grace to also to use it well to to be with our lord and know him and pursue him well so but yeah faith gift absolutely yeah and i think this is i forget which maybe it's at the second council of orange it's solemnly defined it faces faith as a gift everyone's favorite off the beat uh council um yeah so you can't give yourself the faith you can't give yourself the beginning of the faith you can't give yourself the beginning of the beginning of the faith but god can so goodness yeah and that's also i think a super encouraging thing for people you know for for for the faithful to recognize that this isn't something that we have to make up on our own but something that god is giving us and inviting us to be part of um so you're not kind of reinventing the wheel every time you're trying to um live the faith better learn about our lord more pray better these kind of things it's something that our lord invites us to to participate in and more than we want for ourselves he wants us in that it's you know to share in his life so uh there's kind of a beauty to that too amen hallelujah all right debbie semang says is there ever a time that god does not want someone to be catholic when talking to a priest about a person who was protestant this priest said that maybe he's not supposed to be catholic triple question marks oh yeah um i'll do an opening salvo and then i will pass um so god wants everyone to be a saint this is defined in the second vatican council lumengencium i think it's paragraph 40 that the faithful of whatever rank or status are called to the perfection of charity now uh how do i say this so the ch like charity faith and charity are given by christ in the context of the church in the context of the church of christ that same document says that the church of christ subsists in the catholic church which is to say is identified with the catholic church in a certain sense but with the recognition that there are certain elements of grace and salvation which are outside of the bounds of the visible catholic church so like for instance in orthodoxy you have the sacraments you know you have the faith um protestantism you have a couple of the sacraments in the faith you know in judaism you have the covenant in islam you have belief in the one guy you know like there are elements of grace and salvation which properly pertain to you know god and his christ through the working of his church but you see them outside of the bounds of the church but all of those elements of grace and salvation have a kind of gravity towards the church so they ought to direct you to the fullness of you know like catholic life as it were um so in my humble estimation no there's no reason i mean if you if you are conscious of the fact that the means of grace and salvation are present in their plenitude in the catholic church then you ought to enter there's no reason to say okay they're there but maybe my job is to you know stay out here simone vay famously said that she felt like she would be denying the beauty of all that fell without the bounds of the church by entering it but i think she was actually received into the church on her deathbed um so yes so i'd say there's elements of catholic things outside of catholicism but those catholic things lead to catholicism and so i don't think that there's ever reason to hold off once you have acknowledged the fullness they're in yeah that's fine i'm not gonna you hit it great good job [Laughter] all right here we go um alexander winkler says hello fathers could you see the dominican rite being superseded thanks for your ministries boom violin um superseded i don't know um i could see all things happening you know who knows uh my guess is that it's probably um i'm assuming superseded means like not being used anymore these kind of things so uh my thought is probably not probably not in a complete way who knows in an incomplete way um the church has has honored um rights particularly of religious communities that have existed for a long time and kind of left them alone in a lot of ways so that's why you know dominicans were still able to celebrate the dominican right at the council of trent because there was a sort of like i don't know not a grandfather clause but kind of that thing that they've it's just been around forever and it's uh you know it belongs to a particular religious community so leave well enough alone so that's my thought on probably what will happen five is following the mode appropriate so who knows but that's that's where uh that's what i think yep amen um here we go next question is from evan broussard i once went to a town in louisiana named broussard why was i there i was there because my flight out of lafayette got canceled and then i stayed at uh the rectory of a priest really good dude and um yeah he like had us preach the next morning and it was feast of saints just wild times all right so i have good associations with bruce sorry but you're not from prasad necessarily i'm gonna stop talking but i'm gonna keep talking um hello have either of you taught classes any advice for new teachers in a less than ideal school environment p.s thanks for answering my email to god's plan a few weeks ago cat's out of the bag we answer emails um boom so first thoughts about teaching i've taught you know not really um i taught a college course at bellarmine university once that's like the most official teaching that i've done and i've taught other things in less official settings my experience is that um yeah what would i say if i could only say one thing i would say that if they listen to you it's because you're a witness right the world needs witnesses and if you're going to teach them you need first to be a witness i crib that from paul vi from evangeliondi so maybe read that about the nature of testimony whether you're teaching math or you know language arts you know you're you're there for them you're there to witness to them uh and to live a life that's different recognizably different because it's a life that has been blessed by christ so yeah simple thought i'm still a child so i have no teaching advice and i've never taught a real class so yeah nice but if you saw father jacob bertrand's hands out handouts for the rcia class that he taught at st peters on capitol hill you would think he is better than 97 of teachers that i've ever had in my life that's also probably true yeah boy sparrow constantine whose first name literally means i hope let's go sparrow constantine says i'm not catholic but i watch the mass every day and they have a spiritual prayer to read instead of eucharist as a non-catholic can i say that prayer you guys are so inspirational thanks jacob yeah um as a non-catholic you can um as a non-catholic you can do almost a lot of things that catholics do except receiving the the sacraments uh well that's well non-catholics can be received into the church receive the sacraments of initiation but you know not receiving the eucharist those kind of things um so yes pray away that's awesome um and uh my guess is you know being watching the mass it's a very dangerous place for you to be watching the mass and saying prayers while others are receiving communion um [Music] grace is real at work so there you have it but yeah you're more than welcome to it's great so i think that answers dangerous i mean dangerous in a good way uh of course you know i look perilous to sit before our lord in the eucharist is a he usually wins so bless [Laughter] um all right next question from austin stonewall uh can you relate the subject to speaking in tongues to the categories of analogical equivocal and univocal registers of speech no relationship why why not thanks i'm gonna take this on because it's like a little bit of a little bit of a rodeo and i'm in for a rodeo right now um so here we go i'm such a nerd st thomas talks about the charismatic gifts in sakuna sukunde questions 171-178 i feel like i should push my glasses up the bridge of my nose um and in that context he talks about praying in tongues and then interpreting tongues he refers to them as grace is freely given grazia grata's date and he distinguishes them from sanctifying grace so her sanctifying grace makes you holy charismatic grace is the ones described in first corinthians 12. they don't necessarily make you holy but they're for basically other people for converting them for edifying them for building up the life of the church and so you know you'd be able to speak in a tongue not your own maybe with cognizance of what you're saying maybe not depends on whether it's accompanied by the gift of interpretation um but i would say that it's it's a way of describing things and in so far as it's a way of describing things for praise it's a kind of speech but when talking about analogical equivocal univocal you're talking about like different ways in which things can signify so when you're saying you know um i took a bank shot and i deposited my money in the bank spoiler alert i didn't do the second thing you're talking about two different things you're using the same word that's equivocal when i say that father jacob bertrand is a man and i am a man i'm using the word man in the same way that's unnivocal when i say that you know sparrow constantine is good and god is good i'm using that word analogically so it's partly like partly different insofar as god is good in a super eminent way so i don't see how those two categories interface but insofar as they afforded me the opportunity to nerd out i just couldn't pass it up let's go blessings all right god's planning podcast nope there we go we already had this one so i'm gonna cruise um so dennis busby asks what is despair i heard a father say despair is a sin and i also read that despair is a sin that cannot be forgiven i don't understand thank you you want to give it a go yeah so at least the first part um what is is despair said yes despair is a sin because it is a vice contrary to the virtue of hope right yes to the virtue of hope uh i don't know why i was confused about that for a second but i was distracted by something uh so despair sometimes yeah right that's that's charming uh sometimes we we can use despair in uh it to mean different things in the same way we can use words to like like father gregory which is speaking about to signify different things so you know i could like despair of this podcast you know of father jacob bertrand ever giving you know finding a real answer to give she's like uh he's never going to do it uh or you but despair in the proper sense is to is to not have not have the hope that god can save you really that there's no hope for your salvation so doubting god's ability to save so in as much as despair is doubting god's ability to save then yes despair despairs a sin um can despair a despair sin that cannot be forgiven scripture talks about the sins against the holy spirit that cannot be given um i'd uh i guess in a sense if we're talking about despair there as you know if somebody is despairing there doesn't seem to be a way by which the sin can be forgiven because there's no hope that god can forgive sins it's sort of a a cyclical relationship but can one be forgiven of the sin of despair if there was a time when you were despairing and then you go to you know you repent and go to the sacrament of confession these sort of things of course you can yeah yeah so um it's just kind of the context in which one is is it actual despair and then is one um not availing him or herself of the opportunity to be forgiven boom we're going to go to another question from another one of our patrons so this will come in a couple of parts if mary has free will but no original sin then why isn't it possible for all of us to be given free will without original sin maintaining our free will is the reason god allows sin to occur yet he was able to create mary to be both free and perfectly in line with his will so why could why couldn't every human being be created that way from stephanie fisher um so the short answer is we could have been created that way but god chose to create us this way and the reason isn't because well think about it this way god is not about a work of making a best possible world so god could make a better world than the present world god is not somehow responsible for maximizing or optimizing our experience of reality he does it because he wants to share and you know uh he wants to afford us some sharing or partaking in his divine life and by permitting evil and sin and then by drawing us you know by his mercy by his forgiveness deeper into relationship with him he's able to because it's like communicate something that's very beautiful very rich about his love about his mercy about his very nature and god has chosen to give that to us um why precisely you know you can you can think of some reasons for which why it's why it's good and why it's beautiful but we're never going to get down to the bottom of it because you know who has known the depths of god's wisdom they're unsearchable um so for us the stance to adopt before is a kind of contemplative stance to say you know who are you god who have permitted this to befall and where is you know the kind of core of the mystery or where is the source of your wisdom here and the hope is that in prayer we get we get to know god better in the process so yeah um all right let's pop up two we've got another faith is a gift question actually from debbie semaink from whom we heard earlier but this is from uh soliciting questions from patrons so we'll ask faith is a gift scripture tells us if one prays for the gift of faith would they receive it i heard a priest once say once who said that he's been praying for a friend to receive the gift of faith who himself has been praying for it and has not received it i'm very confused debbie samank note i type these into the chat so all typos are mine debbie knows how to spell their own name my sincere apologies um father jacob merchant you want to start us off um sure so as far as praying for things whether it's the gift of faith or not the you know our prayers don't um our prayers don't command god's god to act in the way in which we're asking um so uh prayer is is much more about our conformity to god's will rather than god's conformity to our will um so yeah it's it is good to pray for these things and to pray for other people and as much as our um our prayer unites us to to to the divine will um but to um recognize that especially with with things of faith and you know drawing people too or back to the faith or that kind of thing that our lord the the plan by which this is uh playing out is is our lords and we don't see the whole sort of picture at work um also like there's there's the real freedom of that of that person now in this circumstance you said that they're praying too um but there's uh there's a lot more i guess at work that we don't see the whole kind of working of so um part of this it also involves like the virtue of hope and hoping that god desires their salvation more than we do and that we do have a role to play in it but um you know we may simply just not see the whole kind of working of things yeah yeah and i think another thing to keep in mind is that god is always answering prayers and so far as god is always giving himself but not necessarily in the way that we might hope so yeah like father jacob said you know god wills you're good more than you do god wills your salvation more than you do and i think that that's you know it's like you said that's the setting for our faith that's a setting for our hope it's a recognition that um it's not for us to simply say all right you've promised to answer all prayers i read that knock you know ask seek passage in matthew 7 and so i've come with a list of demands the first of which is faith so god will give us his gifts in the way best suited to our growth in the way best suited to our conversion and sometimes that'll mean being veiled or being obscure or being a little bit difficult from our vantage but ultimately you know it's it's for love and it's from love righteous here we go um mauricio comasagna says hello i would like to know how to reconcile faith with natural law what is the relationship between them thanks initial thought so the natural law are these inclinations at work in our rational nature that give indication of what the goods are that build us up in our our lives as human beings so we're inclined to the preservation of existence procreation and education of children knowledge about god living peaceably in society these types of things because these are the types of things that perfect our nature faith goes beyond the natural law and it reveals to us not only what perfects our nature on the kind of ordinary sense but what in surpassing our nature actually brings our nature to its supernatural fulfillment so faith goes beyond the natural law but it doesn't contradict the natural law it actually purifies or heals the natural law and then elevates um or kind of uh yeah perfects as it were the expression of the natural law in our lives and you can find a cool scriptural meditation on this in romans one and two um all right here we go marcia four sand says for son sorry hi how is it possible for man to at once be totally free or free enough to choose eternal alienation from god and utterly dependent on grace how is hell a thing if god wills that we be saved father jacob sure yeah so uh i guess starting with the second part of the question god's will um we can um we can think of god's will and we can make a a logical distinction here and as opposed to a real distinction a logical distinction is not something that actually exists but a way by which we can understand something a little more easily so god only has one will but we can look at it from different aspects and in looking at it from different aspects we can talk about god's antecedent will and god's consequent will so antecedently what happens before anything else happens when god creates he creates such that all men are have you know are created with the possibility of being saved he doesn't create anybody to damn them to send them to hell there's not this mass of demnada that men are just created to be damned but consequently god's in god's will some people may go to hell because of their free rejection of god's offer of grace and salvation so um how does hell exist with god's will in in that sort of way um but that rejection is is uh exists in the realm of our freedom in our ability to to choose or not and one way that i like to explain this is that um the the whole game here is about our responding to love in kind of returning our returning love to the father of of loving him uh as we can in a human mode aided by grace these kind of things but love is something that can never be can never be forced so in order to enter into this like game of love if that's what we're going to call it there has to be this radical freedom to do it otherwise it's coerced it's a manipulation if god forces us um into like a relationship with him so in as much as grace moves us to love god there's still his freedom to reject the grace that is on offer otherwise it's it's some bizarre manipulation into this relationship so god creates everybody antecedently to um to be saved but because of our actions that have consequences with respect to that relationship um some are damned uh some go to hell and none of that nothing of course escapes god's providence which is his will and action uh on earth um so at least that's a start to the answer yeah i think that's great we're coming to the end here of time so maybe just bop through a couple more questions uh the first of which is from mary huber does the euthanasia principle as you stated also apply to animals i've not understood why that is more acceptable so maybe i'll just give a couple principles and then send it over to father jacob bertrand but the big difference is that you're talking about a difference in kind not just in degree so on account of the fact that we have intellects and wills which are spiritual powers that signals the presence of an immaterial and therefore a mortal soul and that immaterial mortal soul is made to the image of god which is to say it's capable of receiving god which grounds a dignity that surpasses that of the entire animal kingdom so you know saint thomas will say things like god more surpasses our nature than we surpass the nature of a fly but there's still a real sense in which our nature does surpass that of a fly and it's because of the fact that we are from god and for god in a distinct way and then you know you think about the scriptural sources about god giving us dominion and the fact that the material world including you know minerals um plants and animals are for us right they're brought to perfection in us and then this kind of gives context for like agricultural and animal husbandry and stuff like that so those would be some principles i don't know if you want to bring that bring that further along i think that's fine enough yeah righto all right here we go uh christina muscat says fathers any another question are there any lay dominicans in eastern europe what does becoming and being one presuppose thanks for answering my questions god bless yeah i don't know i'm not sure i would assume there are late dominicans in eastern europe but i have i don't i have no clue um i don't know sorry yeah nor i um but we could potentially set you up in conversation with somebody who does know so if you shoot an email to god's planning i will i i live with the dominican who's from lithuania that is in eastern europe so uh he'll know something and i can send you those details um all right it's got a couple left here uh what does it mean to love god especially in mental prayer how can i love something so utterly other jesus is no longer here like you or i he exists in some transcendent way i cannot really appreciate great question father jacob bertrand yeah um so i think at least the how i'll start answering is recognizing that we're we're made that sort of how is like the how what does it mean to love god um how can i love something so utterly uh yeah so there's the how i was looking at the question i was like i know there was a how in there but i wasn't looking at it on the screen at first so um to recognize first that we're made to be in relationship with with god that we're um naturally in ways and supernaturally drawn to uh and made for this relationship so in a sense the how is well that's just i don't mean to dismiss the question but just a way by starting is that um we we're we're oriented to that our hearts long for that our minds desire that those that and i think that's important to recognize that the human person god creates us so as to share his life with us and in so far as we exist we're made for that relationship now that's easier said than done of course so how does one do that um well one does that by adhering first and foremost to the the law of god in the life of grace um and in being um sort of obedient but not in the sense of a slavish obedience but in the obedience of a child who wants to live in relationship with the father um so that i i think earlier you know in the hour we talked about different ways by which like grow in faith and i would apply those same principles to growing and love of god and making acts of love um but i think that's a place to start at least to you know take confidence that that's what we're made for we're we're drawn to that um yeah and there's a book by walter farrow my way of life it's this really small kind of suma i have it on the shelf behind me but if i i won't find it if i turn around but in it he talks about um this um that there's in every person there's a real sense or a real desire for god and it's a really beautiful line he puts it much better but i think that's that's the foundation of the answer to your question at least yeah and if i have anything to add it's simply that love isn't something that you have to like make up right it's not an emotion that you have to manufacture nor is it a kind of spiritual experience that you have to fabricate it's just referring your mind and heart to god which is to say you show up for prayer and you say i'm here for you and that's fine right that's that's kind of what love does when you think about it in concrete terms what does it mean for a father to love his child i mean he might see his child and in that first glance know that he would die for this little human being whom he helped to bring into the world uh but it also means very concretely that when it's real late at night and the child's fussy he just sits up with a child it just means being with uh in a very basic way willing the good of and in god's case that means just referring our mind and heart our whole life to god in a very simple way and i think father jacob bertrand has a book to show and tell yeah so this is the book that wait let's get in the screen my way of life by walter farrell super it's like a spiritual summary of the summa obviously super tiny but really cool so great i think a great resource to check out if you're looking for something to read does indeed boom all right well uh if we haven't yet gotten to your question sincere apologies um we hope to you know address them at the next opportunity and we will be having these here live spanning episodes every second and fourth friday of the month so you can pop in again at the next opportunity um and we'll we'll try to preference those questions from patreon patrons at the top of the hour and then about halfway through and then make it through as many of those other questions that populate in time so thanks so much for tuning in if you haven't yet liked this please do if you haven't yet subscribed to the channel please do that as well and then share it with a friend and yeah i don't know that there are any other significant announcements right um you got it great job we're just we're just living our best lives yeah i'm killing it i'm like father patrick who forgets the announcements at the end of every episode just kidding he's a great guy with great skills uh but i'm actually not kidding i'm very serious deadly earnest uh so you should listen to the episode from this past thursday on joking and then evaluate whether or not never mind uh so yeah our prayers are for you please pray for us and we'll catch you next time on god's planning cheers

Channel: Godsplaining Podcast

Views: 1,144

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Id: 3EFkCduJPIc

Length: 60min 15sec (3615 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021