[music] Man: "Mother Angelica Live!" brought to you from the Eternal Word Television Studios in Birmingham, Alabama. [music] <i>Mother: See in you, the love,</i> <i>the compassion of Jesus.</i> <i>The most glorious work of all,</i> <i>to praise God in His Kingdom.</i> <i>Anyone moved by the Spirit...</i> <i>Anyone who lives in love,</i> <i>lives in God</i> <i>and God lives in Him.</i> [music] <i>What a wonderful thing</i> <i>is our Church.</i> <i>This whole network</i> <i>is built on trust.</i> <i>The essence of evangelization</i> <i>is to tell everybody,</i> <i>"Jesus loves you!"</i> <i>We're all called</i> <i>to be great saints.</i> <i>Don't miss the opportunity!</i> (applause) Mother: Thank you, thank you, and that's exactly what we're going to do tonight. If you think we're mixed up, we are. (audience chuckles) Yesterday we had the Bishop of Mostar and Bishop Welch, and so we just kind of switched. So tonight we have Tuesday night's show, live. If you're mixed up, don't worry about it. You can call now anytime, you know, during this program and if you want to ask something else besides the subject at hand, you can. You know, if you build a house, you have to have a blueprint, otherwise you don't know how many rooms you have. You don't know what kind of a house you're going to have. You don't know whether you're making a barn or a garage or a house. You've got to have a blueprint. Well, everybody understands that, but in their spiritual life they don't understand it. They just kind of go. You know, they don't know where they're going. Now, you couldn't do that. You just couldn't tell a contractor, "I want to build a house." And he said, "All right, where's the blueprint?" You say, "Well, I don't have one." "Well, all right, what kind of a house do you want?" "I don't know." "How big is it?" "I don't know." "Where do you want it?" "I don't know." "Are you sure you want a house?" "No, I'm not sure." "A garage?" "Maybe." "Would you mind getting somebody else? "I can't build something from nothing." Well, that's exactly the way some people act with their souls. They try to build and prepare themselves for the Kingdom doing nothing, absolutely nothing. They think the world and God owes them a living. They think that God Himself owes them salvation, and so they're kind of aimless. That's very true in today's world, because so many people don't have a goal. Do you have a goal? You do. What is it? You want to make a lot of money. Ah, and then what? Then I'll buy that big house you're talking about. Oh, and then what? I'll buy that car I've been looking at a long time, could never afford it. Ah, and then what? I'll buy a boat. And then what? Well, I'll travel. And then what? See, eventually... One time when we first came here, 1962, seems like eons ago, I was asked to give talks all over the city. And so after one of these talks I described our life and what we do and things like that. And this man said to me, he came up after the talk, he said, "I think your life is horrible." "Oh," I said, "I enjoy it." "Well, I still think it's horrible." I said, "Can I ask you a question?" And he said yes. I said, "You look..." I could tell he had a $300 suit on, you know. How do I know that? Because my parents were tailors, and I know a $300 suit when I see it. And I said, "You look to me a man of means." He said, "I am." "Ah, you have a big house?" He said yes. "A big car?" "I have 2." "You go on vacations?" "We go twice a year." I said, "Where?" "Wherever we want to go." "Oh," I said, "are you happy?" He said, "No." I said, "Well, I am, I am." So we have a concept of things and events that make us happy and sometimes they're very, very short-lived. If we don't have that other kind of happiness, then it's nothing, and so our dear Lord has given each one of us a blueprint. And like all blueprints, if you all looked at the same one, there'd be some changes. You'd say, "Oh, I would never put a bedroom there. You'd have that sun coming in early in the morning." So there's some of those things, that see, you wouldn't particularly like. Well, the Beatitudes are the same. (laughs) You were wondering what I was going to say weren't you? Well, it's out of the bag now. We haven't had the Beatitudes for a long time and you see, if you don't know the Beatitudes and you don't know God's blueprint, then you can have all of these things, and there's nothing wrong with having these things, providing you know where you're going after these things go. I've said this a hundred times but I have a favorite meditation, to see one of these flatbed trucks going down the road with 25 squashed cars. What a meditation. Wow! Well, unless we know this blueprint, all the other blueprints will turn to ashes. We'll go to the first one. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." If you want, if you've got your Bibles with you, look at Matthew 5. "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." What does that mean? Well, we don't think poverty is worth anything. We do, must alleviate poverty everywhere we can. You don't have to look at the news to see awesome poverty, illness, sickness, murder. Oh... If the devil had his own program with all his little demons walking around you wouldn't get anything worse than you get now on TV. So you have to know what's evil. So I don't have to talk about that. But if we don't have this... What is poverty of spirit, huh? Well, poverty of spirit is to have that kind of detachment. Some people can use things and, or not use them. They can have them or not have them and some people are so fastidious about things that nobody in the family can use them. Did you ever know somebody like that, huh? They buy a new sofa but nobody sits on it. They cover it with plastic and it's clean forever. You just blow off the plastic and you, you got a clean sofa. They buy new carpet, but everybody comes in the back door. They have a beautiful kitchen but everybody eats in the basement. (audience chuckles) And so you see, that's not poverty of spirit, is it? The spirit is a rich, and there's a yen for preserving everything, you know, like it was new. Well, nothing is new. As soon as you buy it, it's old. I learned that one time buying a car. Well, I knew it was a lemon (audience chuckles) as soon as I got in it and when I got in it I tried to give it back, but he got smart. So I took him right here by the collar, and I said, you know, "I don't want to mess up your tie, but you see that car out there, it's a lemon. Now, take it back." He looked at me, and I said... He must've thought I belonged to the Mafia. (audience laughs) But you know, life is full of lemons, and the poor in spirit don't mind the lemons in their lives. Because sometimes we're born that way. You know, we're born losers. Did you ever see a born loser? Poor guy, he can't do a thing. He goes up the steps, he falls on the first one. He goes downtown and he's waiting at a red light, somebody hits him in the back. He goes to find a parking place and before he can think, an old lady moves in and he's sitting in his car wondering how this old gal got in there. (audience chuckles) He just backed up to park and (makes noise) there she is, can hardly walk when she gets out of the car. (audience chuckles) I mean, he just, he just, you can't win. You know, just sometimes you can't win. But see, if we're poor in spirit we have to accept those things. I did something I thought was very smart one day. I saw this parking place right in front of a place we were going to go and so I said, "Sister, let me out. "I'll stand right in the middle of this place." I understood later you're not allowed to do that, but I didn't know. So I stood right there at that place, and these two old ladies came and they parked just like I wasn't there. So I'm standing here and they go over there and they stop, and I thought, well they're just stopping for something, and she starts turning like this. I'm going... (audience laughs) Does she care? Forget it. She comes in, I had to run and get off of that street. And I got on the curb and looked at her--never looked at me, just started, opened the door and got out, closed the door. Sister comes around the corner and she looks and not even I'm there, let alone the parking place. And so we, we get disoriented, you see, when we have all of these kind of things that hit us every day, every day, every day and because of that we forget, we forget the blueprint. So the poor in spirit are those who have more in mind than what meets the eye. They see beyond. If they want something and they can't get it, they're at peace because the things of this world are not what makes them happy, see. That isn't--I lost my place--that isn't what makes them happy. There is a detachment. Do they love? They love much and they're not afraid to be hurt. They're not afraid to be vulnerable. Some people, if they've loved much and got hurt, they never love again but Jesus was never like that. From the day He was born He had reason to be hurt. He was born in a cave. Nobody loved Him. Nobody knew He was there except His foster father and His Mother, the angels. As soon as they, the knowledge of His presence in this world became public they tried to kill Him. So you see, the Lord's poverty of spirit was so strong because His joy, His happiness was in the accomplishment of the Father's will. And people like that are strong, strong in tragedy, strong in pain, strong in suffering, also strong in joy. They never forget that when things are going well, it is still God. So the depth of their spirit is with God, you see. They're not up one minute and down the next. They have that kind of serenity. Most of us, if we don't get what we want, we're very unhappy, very. If things don't happen the way we want them to happen, we're distressed and disturbed. If I thought I was going to get that job and I got something that wasn't as good, I'm angry. And see, we take for granted, all this is life. I mean, "You got to be that way." No, you don't have to be that way. If you have your vision towards that other goal, that's, that's what's important. So let's take the next one. "Blessed are the gentle. "They shall have the earth, they shall possess the earth." I saw a sticker on the back of a car. It had this parable, this Beatitude on it. It said, "Blessed are the gentle, they shall inherit the earth-- Who wants it?" Well, I could see his point. But it wasn't this earth the Lord is talking about. It meant the earth of passion, the ground of that kind of anger that destroys, see. For example, a gentle person is one who--they can manifest gentleness in many ways. Some people go through the door and slam it. They don't even hear it. Pow! And some people will go and they'll go through the door and just close it. See, what's it got to do with gentle? It's a sign, a sign of a gentle spirit. See, they're not the kind that's going to disturb. Our Lord was very gentle. And once, He got angry, but it was justified anger. The gentle are those who think before they act, see. It's something that is inborn. Some people are born gentle. Me, I've got to work on it and work hard. My temperament, my Italian temperament does not lend itself to be gentle. My grandmother was gentle. My grandfather was like a volcano. But see, there was about them peacefulness in a gentle person, that they would never argue with you about something. Now, they may have a different opinion, but they have a feeling, such a depth of compassion. A gentle person has a depth of compassion and they think of, of that first. That's what wells up in the heart of a gentle person. It's compassion. They would never override or be overbearing. And our Dear Lord said they're blessed. Ah, everybody loves a gentle person. You know, I mean, it's very hard to love a hothead. Did you ever notice that, huh? Very hard to love a hothead but everybody loves a gentle person. Not because they, you know, you can just walk over them. A gentle person is able to make a correction with love. Ah, now that's something. Many people cannot correct with love. Why? A gentle person will make the sinner, say, "I don't like your sin but I love you." That's different. A gentle person knows the difference between the sin and the sinner so they can love the sinner and not love the sin at all. So when they correct, they're careful. For example, they would compliment somebody first and say, "You did a very, very good job, but I think this could have been done maybe a little better." Now, a hotheaded person would say, "What are you, stupid, that you can't do this right? "What are you, a born loser? "How many times do I got to tell you?" Did you ever hear that? Yeah. Look at them nodding their heads. See, that's the difference between a gentle person and somebody who's not gentle. In the, in the first there's a kind of feeling of compassion and there is no absence of love. In the second there's a total absence of love. And that's why you can walk away from one and feel angry because you've been corrected, and you feel good if you've been corrected by a gentle person. So the earth is theirs. Now, "Happy are those who mourn." Does that mean everybody... "They shall be comforted." Does that mean everybody that goes to a funeral is going to be blessed? It has nothing to do with funerals or people dying. It means blessed are those who mourn over their sins. Oh, a lot of people don't mourn over their sins today. They don't even admit they got them. Have you ever cried over your sins? You say, "What have I got to cry about?" Have you ever hurt somebody? Are you saying you've lived all your life, you never hurt somebody and when you saw how hurt they were, you cried? You never did that? Boy, you're a hard cookie. See, what our Dear Lord is saying is that when I mourn over my sins, He will comfort me. I am comforted by confession. I am comforted. A weight lifts off of you when you when you go to confession. The Beatitudes are multi-faceted. They, they, they encompass our entire lives. That means this is something I got to do. It's just not something going to be, you know, poured in my mind. This is an action thing. I have to accomplish these, these Beatitudes. Now, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice. "They shall be satisfied for what is right," it says here. What does that mean? We're going to go out and have a war and save all those that are treated so terribly in this world? It means holiness. Do you hunger and thirst for goodness? Do you want to really be good? Do you hunger and thirst to be holy? Do you hunger and thirst to, to, to want to be with God? (coughs) Do you hunger and thirst... Oh, look at that? This is called service, you know. Look at that, it's just staying there. Well, there we go. Well, it's not going to stay this time. Do you hunger and thirst to be better? I mean, do you hunger and thirst to love God? Do you really want to love God? How many people thirst for God? How many people would go and make a visit or visit the Blessed Sacrament and say, "I want to be with Jesus, I want to see God, I want to know God?" How many of you out there even give the Dear Lord a thought a day? And what does it say is going to happen? You'll be satisfied. Have you ever thought that the reason you're so absolutely miserable--especially you that have everything. The poor are hardly ever miserable until they get bitter, but many of the poor are more happy than you are. Why? Because it isn't possessions that make, they thirst for God, they know God, they love Him. When I went to Mexico I was extremely edified. You see these people coming from everywhere, the poorest of the poor and they had such a light in their eyes. They were walking on their knees to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They had, definitely had something a lot of people missed. Was it the walking on their knees? No. They hunger and thirst for God. Everything was taking away from them. They lived on little, they ate little, and so they were free. They thirsted for God. There was nothing holding them back and nothing holding them down, see. And this is why these, these benefits, they're a lot of promising. If I keep these Beatitudes and you keep these Beatitudes, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours, the earth is your heritage, you're going to be comforted, satisfied, mercy will be shown you. Pure of heart, you shall see God. St. Teresa of Avila, when she was a child, her brother and her decided they were going to run away and be martyrs so they could see God. They're just little kids. So they took the little--whatever Spanish people take with them when they go on a trip, and they took off. And their father came and picked them up, and he said, "What are you doing?" She said, "We want to go to the war so we can be martyred. We want to see God." Have you ever hungered to see God? Do you ever long in your heart to be rid of all these sins and all these inclinations to sin, huh? Have you ever wished and hoped your temper didn't flare up at some small thing? Have you ever wished you were really pure in mind and body? Did you ever hope that somehow you were so sure, even though you go to confession, some of you, you don't have that realization that when God forgives, He forgets and you're free at that moment. And you long for that but you won't go to confession. See, you long to be forgiven but you don't thirst for God, you don't thirst for that freedom of a child of God, you see. Ah. Our Lord promises you'll be satisfied and then He says, "Happy the merciful. "They shall have mercy shown them." Oh, that's a hard one. Do you have one of these Beatitudes that you don't like? I bet you do. I bet this is one of them. We want mercy but we don't want to give mercy. Why? I don't know. We just want those who make us miserable to suffer a little bit, that's all, maybe break a leg or something. I mean, we don't wish them damnation--a bad headache maybe. There was somebody that doesn't have sympathy for somebody that's sick, and you hear them say, "Okay one day you're going to get it. Just wait till you get it." Well, it's not the epitome of mercy, you know, and we do that. I told you about the woman who was so mad because her husband went to confession, he went to Communion, just about 5 minutes before he died. Boy, was she angry. I said, "Why aren't you rejoicing?" She said, "Do you realize he could have gone straight to Heaven, that crumb?" (laughs) Wouldn't it have been funny if he did, huh? See, we forgive but we don't have mercy, and we all kind of feel that. That's why we have a problem with the parable of the prodigal son. You know, he went out, he spent all his money, he blew it. He comes home. They have a banquet, they have, he gets a ring, he gets a garment. And here comes the man who, who worked for his father, never even asked for a kid to roast for his friends. I'll make a bet there isn't a person here that don't sympathize with the other man, the other boy. You read it and say, "Oh, yeah," (audience chuckles) but down here or back here, subconsciously, "Oh, I don't know. That's not fair." Well, put yourself in the side of the prodigal son and you'll feel pretty good about it, change sides. That's what you need to do because we're all like the boy who ran off and squandered his inheritance. I've heard-you and I in this world today squandered our inheritance, haven't we, squandered our inheritance in the Church by teaching all this heresy and schism and all this crazy stuff you hear. Haven't we blown it? There are some children that don't even know that our Lord is really present in the Eucharist. We've squandered our--we're satisfied eating the husks of heresy and schism. We eat husks today. We're satisfied with the very minimal. How are you going to get to Heaven if you don't even desire it or know it exists, huh? Well, and how are you going to be showing mercy, like the our Father says, "Forgive me as I forgive others." We say it every Sunday. We sing it every Sunday. We sing it here every morning. You're asking the Father to forgive you like you forgive. You better start. You know the new Catechism has a great section on the Beatitudes. I'll have to do it fast. "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God." What does that mean? Well, it's very similar to the poor in spirit. Why? Purity is manifold. There's purity of body, purity of mind. Today with so much pornography... And I was trying to listen to the news the other night and I had to turn it off, the ads were so bad. See, when you allow your mind to bee filled with the husks of swine, then you better get back to your Father or a garment and ring you'll never have. Why? Because you get satisfied eating husks. And that's the problem, see, that's the problem. You're not pure in heart. Your heart lusts after everything. You say, well, you only lust after women or men. Ah, you can lust after riches, you can lust after glory, you can lust ambitiously to get ahead and you walk over everybody while you're doing it. You're not pure of heart. Selfishness keeps you from being pure of heart. Some people are so selfish. They don't care about anything except themselves--what's in it for me? Sometimes we get vocation letters and they want to know do they take vacations? Just inquiring and she wants a vacation already. "Do you have any debt?" Well, if I did, I wouldn't ask her to pay for it. I mean, what does it matter if I have debt if you have a vocation? What does it matter? "How often does my family visit me?" Well, that's not a bad question, but, "Can I go home when I want to?" Sweetheart, at this point you're not even getting in to go home. See, when I determine that I'm going to make a sacrifice only if all of these things are satisfied. I got to start rock-bottom. If you're going to love your neighbor only because of what he does for you, then you don't love at all, because when he no longer does that, then you cease to love. See, that's a lack of purity of heart. We don't love God with a pure heart. We don't love each other with a pure heart. You know what gripes me a lot? When a woman gets cancer, and I've known a lot of them, and their husbands leave them. What is wrong with you? See, that's not a pure love. It's a selfish love. And a lot of people--and that's why our Dear Lord said, "Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God." What a promise. And when you're selfish, all you do is see yourself, see. Now, these Beatitudes are for you and me, not just me. Don't look at me. (audience chuckles) This is for every child, every person in the world. Now, there's another one, "Blessed are the peacemakers." Oh, now He didn't say, "Blessed are the peaceful," "Blessed are the peacemakers." You got to make peace. It doesn't come. You've got to make peace. "They shall be called sons of God." See, St. Paul said we should settle an argument before it starts, or right after it starts. How are you going to do that? Keeping your mouth shut would be one way. Not arguing may be another way. Saying a little prayer would be one way. See, you've got to work for the Kingdom. I had a man say to me the other day, "Mother, you make Catholicity, Christianity hard." Me make it hard? (audience chuckles) I suggest you read it and read it good, and put the periods in the right place. This is hard. These Beatitudes are hard. See, you got to make peace. The other is, the last, well it isn't the last, "Happy are those who are persecuted for a just cause. "Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." I mean, you're promised a lot. Now, I like this one. "Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on My account. "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven." Now, St. Luke adds a nice little thing that I like a lot. He says--where is it? Luke 6, Luke 6 says something I think is very nice and I'll see if I can find it for you. And the reason I like Luke's beatitudes, (laughs) you won't believe this. "Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name on account of the Son of Man. "Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy." (laughs) I ought to be dancing all the time. (audience laughs) Why would you want to dance? Because your reward will be great in Heaven. Don't be a crawler in Heaven, you know. We got great Beatitudes here, that we're supposed to rejoice when we're persecuted. We don't. We're not even persecuted anymore. Everybody gives in. "Yeah, we're going to take the pews out." "Oh, that's okay. "I don't mind standing an hour." "We don't kneel for the Eucharist." "That's okay, that's okay." How--and this 8th Beatitude's what you're afraid of see. You don't want the persecution. "Let's everybody be happy. Don't rock the boat." You got to rock boats. If you don't rock the boat, nobody's going to know there's a hole in it. They're going to sink. I forgot, we got calls. Hi. Hello. Caller #1 (female): Hello. Mother: Where are you from? Caller #1: Florida. Mother: And what is your question? Caller #1: My question is, I'm going to give you first an idea that you understand. You're Italian. I'm Spanish, and I told the priest to help me to pray because often I get angry. Mother: Yeah. Caller #1: And he told me, well, "You try to be God, you don't let God, room for God to work in your life," and he confused me. Then what do you have to say to me that change my opinion about it? Mother: Well, let me tell you, us French, Spanish, Italian, I mean, it comes with the package to be angry. Not all are angry but I think your blood rushes up a little faster than anybody else's. See, and some people never, they're calm, cool and collected and you just look at them and you say, "I wonder what's wrong with them," see? So don't, don't be angry because you're angry. You're striving for holiness. But the priest can't say you're stri--that's wrong. You're right to strive for holiness, and you should. You should pray. Once you know you have a hot temper, you got to figure it out. I cannot go to Heaven with a hot temper. Now, you might go to Hell with a hot temper but you can't get to Heaven with a hot temper. So what are you going to do? Well, you're either going to solve it here or you're going to solve it in Purgatory. Now, I know, you don't believe in Purgatory but that don't make it right. It doesn't become nonexistent because you don't believe in it. It's there. What you need to do is to understand that we work towards perfection. We work towards being like Jesus. We're not--even after redemption we still have that concupiscence, you know, we still have those tendencies to be selfish, to be angry, to be everything. You're doing okay. Try not to be angry. You know the things you get angry. Well, just stay away from them. Now, you say, "Well I'm giving my opinion." Well, if you know you're going to be angry about it, forget your opinion. You can help it. Pray about it and if you fail, never, never be discouraged or disheartened. Go to Jesus, go to Jesus and say, "Jesus, help me." I think the word perfect is, sometimes people think if I'm trying to be virtuous, I'm a perfectionist. That's not it. Nobody here is perfect. Nobody was born perfect except Our Lady and none of us are perfect. As hard as you try, your weaknesses and faults are going to die 15 minutes after you do. See, we just, this is a grace for us because every day I can give Jesus something. Every day I can make a choice to be like Jesus rather than myself. Every day I can hold my temper. Every day I can be patient under trying circumstances. Every day we have a chance for that transformation, for my soul to be like Jesus. (coughs) You're doing okay. Not to worry. Keep trying and all of a sudden you're going to find, "Ah, a year ago I would have blown his head off," (audience laughs) but you didn't. You see, holiness and virtue is a slow process, slow process. You can't rush it. I'll be 50 years a nun Monday. That's a long time. And if I wanted to, it wouldn't take much either, I could look back and say, "Ah, how many opportunities I missed," or, "How many things I wish I had done I didn't, how many things I wish I hadn't done." But that's not what the Lord wants. He knows I'm sorry. He knows I want to be holy. I want to be like Jesus. I want to see God, see. So at this moment I can say "Lord, help me, be close to me, let me be close to You and then together we shall, I shall reach that height you want from me." We got to be gentle with ourselves just as much as we're gentle with our neighbor. So keep striving. We have another call. Hello. Caller #2 (child): Hi, Mother. Mother: Hi, where are you from? Caller #2: Massachusetts. Mother: How old are you? Caller #2: 10. Mother: Wonderful! What's your question? Caller #2: What do you do with old sacramentals or broken sacred objects? I would feel bad throwing away a broken rosary or statue. Mother: Some of them you can fix. Some are worn out. Do you want to know what we do with them? Caller #2: What? Mother Angelica: We carve a bury box, b-u-r-y, bury. And a lot of things break beyond repair and every time we build, which we seem to be doing all the time, when they, when they dig the foundation, you see, I put all of these broken objects in the corners and then they pour the cement on top. And the whole building's blessed with broken objects, see, the whole building is blessed. So if you know somebody that's building something, or you can go out in your yard and bury it. Just don't, just don't throw them away, you know, in garbage cans. And we've been getting, and I'm surprised, very happy, we've been getting relics. And I have a thing about relics because a lot of elderly people, as they get older, they're almost sure their children are not going to want their relics and they're going to dump them. So they're sending them to me. Wonderful. You can send me all you got, because they're blessed, see. When I pass our big relic box I remember the wonders of these saints. They made it. And we're going to make it too. So I think that's what I would do with them, honey. We have another call. Hello. Caller #3 (male): Yes, Mother. Mother: Where are you from? Caller #3: Virginia. Mother: And what is your question? Caller #3: Well, sometimes it seems to me that the end justifies the means sometimes. Mother: Like what? Caller #3: Well, for example, in an office situation, if a person is say, relieved of their job and everybody's concerned because maybe the person was a good person but maybe the person didn't do their job very well. And the person didn't find a job afterwards, but maybe the boss or whoever is in charge tells people that the person did find a job and was very successful and everything happened that followed happily ever after. That would be a lie but the people would feel good about it that remained in the office. I just would like to hear your comments on a situation maybe like that. Mother: That doesn't justify that, because a lie is a lie. I think when we start to justify, if a person is not competent and they leave or you're asked to leave, I think God has something better in store, but I don't think I would pretend that everybody, that he's doing even better if he's not because that lie is--lying is really never justified. It's kind of misguided compassion. We want everyone to believe that we made the right decision firing this man and now he's better off, but it's not true. He may be worse off. Now, I think the employer could go to him and say, "Can I help you?" That would be Christian. "Can I help you get another job? "Can I, can I help you find something else? "Can I give you some money just to get along until you find some? "Can I do something for your children?" That would be real Christian. It's not bad to let someone go if they're not competent, because it's embarrassing for them and the work doesn't get done, but it has to be done in a Christian way, see. Now, we can, you know, offend by the sin of omission because some people need correction and the longer I don't correct, then the more sin they commit, see. So we need to be very careful and be honest. "This person was let go because of this reason. Let's pray for him." That would be a lot better than lying about it. So I don't see the end justifies the means. It's like the minister comes to the door and the mother sees him and she says, "Johnny, go tell the minister mother's not home." So the kid's smart. He says, he goes to the door and says, "Mother told me to tell you she's not home." (audience laughs) See, he's going to do exactly what his mother said, because he didn't see the point. So be careful, very careful when you say the end, the means justifies it. It doesn't, it doesn't. Well, sweet people out there, keep close to the Gentle Jesus and I'll see you next Tuesday. Bye. (applause) [music]
