Explaining the Faith - The Truth of Mary Magdalene and the Da Vinci Code

thank you everybody for joining us i'm father chris aylar one of the marians of the immaculate conception here at the national shrine of the divine mercy as we are continuing our seminary series you guys are all ready to get your certificates as being fully educated because i'm throwing everything at you and today as you saw on the title slide we're going to be talking about mary magdalene talk about one of the most misunderstood saints and even into the da vinci code completely misunderstood so we want to help clarify her role and what she can do and why she's so important in our faith so reason we do it is next week july 22nd is her feast day so i'm trying to pick these talks to match the timing of the church calendar let us start with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we as through the intercession of saint mary magdalene that we be purified of all of our attachments that we may be cleansed and prepared to enter into heaven and through her intercession to be penitent a good penitent and to confess and to turn from our ways back to you o lord and we ask all this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so you saw on your slide this is mary magdalene now the bible mentions certain women who follow jesus a lot of women joanna susanna several mary's solomay let's look at our next slide here's a picture that jesus had a different attitude towards women than the culture of the time the culture of the time gave no social status to women in fact the rabbis even refused to teach women and assign them a much inferior place in society and so this was interesting that the four gospels that in these four gospels jesus's enemies were all men all of them jesus never had a female enemy that's ever mentioned in the gospels i thought that was interesting i think it's mostly from pride even the apostles when jesus called them first cared about their status and position who's the greatest come on lord tell us who's the greatest so so i think we have a lot to learn but these women were happy to serve quietly they were behind the scenes they gave generously out of the resources a lot of people don't realize jesus accepted support financial support you know we've had some brothers here in the past most of them are gone now that are saying we absolutely can't accept one thing of support well we have to we we we got to eat we we you know we got to have electricity or we wouldn't be coming to you and so jesus accepted this from the hearts of people like you and a lot of them most of jesus's funding for his ministry came from women very interesting this is why the gospel honors these women and they imitated jesus in serving rather than being served so let's look at our next slide now here is mary magdalene she was one of the keys do you know that she's mentioned in all four gospels 12 times more than most apostles she's mentioned more than most of the apostles 12 different times all the gospels she was one of the women who accompanied jesus and the apostles it tells us in luke 8 quote the 12 accompanied him and also some women i'm reading right from the gospel here luke eight and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and male ladies mary called the magdalene from whom seven diva demons had gone out gospel of mark also confirms this so mary magdalene who is she while she was at the foot of the cross during the crucifixion we hear about that in matthew mark and john she also witnesses christ burial what an amazing honor and on easter she was the first to discover the empty tomb and then the first to see the risen lord john chapter 20. that right there makes her an incredible intercessor for you help me see jesus you know in our lives all the time we're asking how do i know what god's will is in my life have you prayed and asked for the intercession of mary magdalene to help you see jesus ultimately she's praying for us we're not praying to her we're not worshiping either mary here we're we're asking she was the first one ever to see the resurrected jesus she can help you see him too she's her prayers now not because we're praying to her as a deity all right now magdalene comes from the word it's not her last name people think it's mary magdalene her last name no it comes from magdala which was a city along the sea of galilee a wealthy city and this wealthy city is where the romans destroyed it because of their moral depravity interesting huh we think of sodom and gomorrah but actually the romans destroyed magdala from which her name comes because of their moral decay so it's interesting that also in the talmud the word magdalene listen to this is derived or from it is derive the expression curling a woman's hair that means adulterous now please don't send me the letters on that i am not telling you if you curl your hair that you are an adulteress please please don't tell my superiors i said that it's a word that derived from it and that is what the whole big picture is that we're going to unpack today i think it's very interesting now take a look here in the gospels there are three characters of interest i'm going to do a little bible study today stay with me there's going to be this is going to be the toughest part of the talk if you can get through this part if you can hang with me through the next few minutes you'll get through the rest of the talk quite interesting with da vinci code first half will be mary magdalene second half will be da vinci code now there are three particular characters that we want to talk about here mary magdalene has mentioned by name that she followed jesus this is john 20 verses 1 11 through 18. it's where she saw the open tomb jesus appeared to her and said mary and she says rabona raboni so she's mentioned by name there but we also have the anonymous woman who repented in luke chapter 7 okay 36-50 of her sins anointed our lord's feet and dried it with her hair right now there's also the mary of bethany remember lazarus who jesus rose from the dead and it was martha and mary if you're a hard worker and you're always doing something people call you a martha if you're more a contemplative prayer person and you like to stay in the chapel you're more a merry so this was the mary we're talking about this was the sister of mars martha and lazarus and this was luke chapter 10 verse 38 to 42. now here's why i bring all this up in the west we'll remember we're the western church pope gregory the great believed all three of those were mary magdalene even though only one mentions the name mary magdalene the other woman who washed his feet in the home of simon the pharisee believed was mary magdalene and then mary the sister of lazarus and martha he believed was mary magdalene now let's talk about this now in the east they keep them separate in the eastern orthodox and eastern church mary magdalene and mary of bethany the one i talked about are separate they have separate feast days but why would pope gregory fuse these characters together let's take a look our next slide all right our next slide let's start with john 20 this is the empty tomb let's start with who we know is mary magdalene because it says it right in the bible it's mary magdalene there she is at the tomb on your screen now mary magdalene is mentioned by name so we know this is her for sure she was also that's the easy one so you know what i'm not gonna we'll talk about that one later let me let me put that one on the shelf empty tomb coming up in a minute let's go to the next one was she also the penitent woman found in luke 7 that was in the home of simon the pharisee and wiped jesus's feet all right next slide remember the penitent woman when she entered the home of simon the pharisee she wept in her tears fell upon jesus's feet she washed his feet with her tears and perfumed oil and dried them with her hair now what happened do you remember what simon the pharisee did he said huh this guy's not a prophet talking about jesus remember and he thought it jesus knew his thoughts right because jesus said simon i have something to talk to you about simon's like whoa what did simon think simon said if this man were a prophet he would know who and what sort of woman this was that touches him she is a sinner so this is what simon's thinking as this woman's wiping jesus's feet it's obvious reference to the fact that she's untouchable because he says jesus this if he was a prophet would know who's touching him so basically it's telling him the simon is telling us that this woman is untouchable what does that mean sexual sin that was a euphemism if somebody was untouchable it means they were you can't touch them now you think of leper that's true in one way but it meant a sexual sin yet jesus forgives her all right one of the most common sins that we hear in the confessional are sexual sins and so jesus is saying even you come to me i will forgive but we have to come to him so soon after this mary magdalene is mentioned now by name again not just at the tomb by name but she's mentioned by name as a follower of jesus from whom seven devils were cast out luke eight verse one through three okay so here you have this woman that anoints who's doing a sexual sins or had been guilty of sexual sins and then right after it the bible mentions my name mary magdalene of whom seven demons were cast out so mary and magdalen is mentioned on john and the tomb by name and where seven demons were cast out by name let's make this connection even deeper now let's look at our next slide is mary magdalene the same as mary of bethany the third one which is martha and mary sisters of lazarus luke 10. now to answer this this is why i loved my scripture classes if you have friends especially protestants that isolate bible verses and we all know them they'll send you an isolated bible verse and everything will be focused on that isolated bible verse you can't do that you have to read the bible as an entire context the other scriptures if you do that the bible contradicts itself the bible will contradict it looks like it has been contradictions we'll talk later did was there an angel at the empty tomb or a man because in one scripture it says it's an angel in another scripture it says it's a man which one is true in john it's just mary magdalene in matthew mark and luke it's three women which one's true this is what we're going to talk about you have to take it all in context so to understand if mary magdalene is the same mary as the sister of lazarus and martha you got to go back to john john 12 verse 1 through 11. jesus arrived at bethany the village of lazarus whom he raised from the dead now martha served a meal remember martha's the worker definitely i'm accused of being a martha and mary which i need to be more like is the prayerful one mary anointed the feet of jesus just like back in luke at simon's house the pharisee but here she does it with perfume and drives his feet also with her hair it's a different event but it's the same action it's an anointing by a penitent woman and it is it's basically different from the simon the pharisee example which was back in luke seven but it's the same kind of action which helps us to suggest it may be the same person she did it in the same way now here's another interesting fact in john 11 which was just earlier to john 12 this is interesting jesus raised lazarus from the dead and here's what it says in the gospel john 11 verse 1 and 2. there was a certain man named lazarus who was sick he was from bethany the village of mary and her sister martha this mary whose brother lazarus was sick was the one who anointed the lord with perfume and dried his feet with her hair now which event are they talking about the one i first read you back in luke or the one that's coming up in john 12 well it doesn't make sense that it's just going to be a separate one coming up in john 12 or you wouldn't bother to mention her in john 11 because it's coming up he said it's the same one that already anointed in john 12 she hadn't anointed yet but in luke 7 she had anointed so if you believe the scriptures if you do here mary is identified as the one who anointed the lord so some speculate that this was the same woman so this refers to a similar action if this holds the mary magdalene the penitent woman and mary of bethany are all the same this has been church teaching gregory said this is why mary magdalene is so important and this is why she has her own feast day on july 22nd okay now that you've got all the bible study done let's get into the meaning of what you want to learn about mary all right bible study is over now what is the essence of this archbishop roque says this mary magdalene seeks to reflect more deeply on three things the dignity of women the new evangelion evangelization and the greatness of god's mercy wow think about those three things the dignity of women everybody thinks that should happen evangelization is required for your salvation and divine mercy you have to accept in order to get to heaven these are three huge things and this this basic saint is telling you everything why the dignity of woman because you know what if the apostles were going to steal the body and set up a witness it wouldn't have been a woman in order for uh an event to be viewed as as true it had to be a man witness now if jesus and his disciples had rigged this they would have never picked a woman witness she didn't hold any power in court so this is raising the dignity of women what about evangelize she was the first one to say he has risen what are we saying in easter he is risen this is important because she was the first to proclaim it the first to see it she was the first evangelizer so you want to learn how to evangelize follow the example mary magdalene and then third divine mercy why because she's all three of those women who needed mercy the penitent woman that washed the feet of jesus begged for mercy mary magdalene was the one who casted out the demons or jesus casted out the demons she needed mercy we have very much the fact that she's a witness to mercy because she was a sinner this is the message now let's look at our next slide what kind of woman was she all right she wasn't just a sinner she was a saint every sinner every saint is has a little bit of each other all right every saint has a past every sinner has a future all right now john 20 is the one of the few places in the bible where someone encounters an angel without being afraid why wasn't mary afraid well because she was so focused on jesus she wasn't thinking of herself or oh my gosh is this angel going to hurt me she was 100 focused on jesus and so this is one of the things she even took the message to peter showing he's the head of the apostles still she left behind she was left behind even though they raced into the tomb she was left way behind but she kept coming why love and then she's trying to figure out how to get the body she says just show me where the body is i'll take him away how's she gonna take him away with a hundred pounds of spices the shroud estimates that the body in the shroud jesus weighed 175 pounds so scientists looked at the body on the shroud of turn and estimated that jesus weighs 175 pounds now on top of that you had 100 pounds of spices that's 270 pounds 75 pounds and mary magdalene says i'll take him away that shows faith all right she just wanted to love remember jesus told blessed consolata bertone you worry only about loving me and i'll take care of everything else to the smallest detail you worry do you have worries every day do you worry how this is going to get done that's going to get done and you don't have time for your prayers jesus said you worry only about loving me and i will take care of everything else to the smallest detail all right now mary magdalene stood whooping weeping at the tomb let's look at our next slide there's mary at the tomb she was weeping and she heard the whole desire was to find out where they took them where they took the body now jesus calls her by name jesus says mary she says rabboni and so basically here if we simply seek the lord that's all mary magdalene is doing here you want to know the key to sainthood the key to sainthood isn't oh i looked at that on on the internet or oh my gosh i had one too many drinks at dinner tonight the key to sainthood is seeking jesus not beating ourselves up yes we have to follow the commandments but we will find him this will allow us to recognize him and he will call us by name jesus said to mary don't touch me okay this is interesting why did jesus tell mary magdalene don't touch me but right afterwards he told thomas touch me you ever think about that oh it must be a sexist thing of the roman catholic church no it's not there's a couple different reasons here all right now the first many scholars believe that jesus said that because he's saying listen don't cling to me the word touch is actually cling don't hold me don't detain me i gotta go see my brothers before i ascend to the father so the reason he said don't detain me is i gotta go i have a mission here because st thomas is going to doubt and i need to show him so that's some scholars hold that opinion but you know another opinion that i hold that's fascinating one of the reasons maybe jesus told mary magdalene not to touch him was her hands were not consecrated who has consecrated hands the priest and after the last supper who are the twelve apostles the priests so he may have told saint mary magdalene don't touch me her hands weren't consecrated and yet thomas's were so he could say touch me there's a couple different views there all right and i think this is very very very important all right now is there a contradiction oh the bible's full of them father chris all right do you know that john says that only mary magdalene was at the tomb but the other gospels say three other women were there i want to explain something right now about contradictions in the bible you'll find a million of them does that mean the bible isn't true no okay this is so important many non-catholics and even non-christians will criticize the bible because facts seem to appear different let me give you let me give you a point if we were all down at the street corner today and there were 12 of us walked down to go to lunch at the red lion inn and we're all talking at the corner and all of a sudden a traffic accident happens and two cars hit each other all 12 of you are from this congregation you're all honest people none of you are lying none of you are trying to hurt one of the people because you know them nobody knows who the two people were in the accident the police interview all 12 separately do you think every single one of the 12 stories are going to match exactly impossible they don't there's going to be something different well that car was a little driving a little faster no it was driving a little slower well no that car started to go to the left no i think it went to the right because we see things differently it doesn't mean it's not true you see them differently now mark 16 1 says that there was mary magdalene mary not our mary but the mary of james and joseph and the mother of james and john called solomon so two mary's and a solomay so you have mary magdalene some other mary the mother of james and joseph not our mary and then a lady named solomay who is the mother of james and john the apostles those three came to the tomb that's what mark tells us now it's fitting that mary magdalene these should be the first to get the good news as a reward they were at the cross they're the same ladies that were at the cross they didn't run away they were there when he was laid in the tomb you don't think jesus is not going to reward these people that's why i think the polish and the filipino people are being rewarded now with being spreaders of divine mercy because they remained faithful through world war ii tragedy and in in such attacks and yet they remained catholic 95 god bless them so now they were the first to proclaim go tell this is a commandment for those to come to know christ go tell the world about christ this is what they were doing and then he says go tell my brothers this is the first time that jesus calls him my brothers why why now they just ran away it shows he forgave them jesus forgave them and it shows that the past is forgiven as an ancient church the ancient catholic church put it she's the apostle to the apostles did you know that mary magdalene is the apostle to the apostles and so notably jesus received worship from these ladies you know if jesus wasn't god there's no way he would have accepted worship all right we're almost done with mary magdalene we want to get under the da vinci code now john mentions mary magdalene without any mention of these other women does that mean it's incomplete maybe does it mean it's incorrect no not necessarily let's look at our next slide slide number nine here is two women looking into the tomb and you see an angel or do you see a man gee it looks like a man but he's got wings like an angel all right so who is in the tomb angels or men how many now here's what's interesting mark and luke tell us there were two men sitting in the tomb interesting matthew says an angel was sitting in the tomb and john says there were two angels so matthew and or excuse me mark and luke say it was two men matthew says it was an angel and john says it was two angels can't these guys get it right again it's the perspective it's not necessarily contradictory mark and luke describe what the woman saw they saw men whereas matthew and john give an interpretation of what the women saw angels well father is it a man or an angel aha remember genesis 18 and hebrews 13 tell us angels often appear as men that's your answer angels often appear as men so in one of the gospel passages they see men the other angels doesn't mean it's a lie well i dismiss the bible that right there shows it's contradictory it's one big lie no it's not how we read the bible this is maybe why mary this is this is interesting because this is with regard to how okay i also mentioned not just that their men are angels but how many angels okay john says there were two angels matthew says it was one angel how many all right with regard to how many matthew only mentions the one that spoke if five of you came to talk to me at the end of mass and i only talked to one of you named hildy and i don't talk to the other four of you and i go later and father kaz says what happened after mass oh i spoke to hildy well that doesn't mean i'm lying that samantha wasn't there and pamela wasn't there and amanda wasn't there it doesn't mean that i just spoke to hildy so when i mentioned that i just mentioned hilda it doesn't mean i'm lying that the others weren't there this is how we read the bible all right now here's a great question did jesus appear to his mother before mary magdalene after the resurrection there's no mention of mary the mother here non-catholics will constantly point that out that's the uselessness of mary can't believe it the mother of god and we're told that she's the of babylon i i just i'm baffled by that if you want to know what i'm talking about just read the comments on the islam talk that i said that mary would be the one to bring muslims back those comments are shocking but pray for the people god bless them this is why we're doing this this is why we have you here with us and so jesus appeared to his mother mary true or false all right let's look at our next slide here's a picture of a painting of jesus appearing to mary pious belief says yes jesus must to have appeared to his mother before anybody else but as our non-catholic brother will say show me that in the bible so remember not everything that ever occurred is in scripture how do we know that first excuse me john 21 verse 25 not everything is in the bible the bible tells you not everything is in the bible now one of the big reasons popular belief is that when what's written about jesus appearing to mary magdalene and the other women and the apostles was proof that christ has risen but jesus appearing to his mother is just about love it's just a love story it was personal it didn't need to be documented as proof of his resurrection it was just about love between a mother and a son that's why maybe mary didn't go to the tomb mary now the mother of jesus pope john paul said in his general audience in 1997 that he believes that's why mary didn't go to the tomb i think that's interesting and i want to finish now with mary magdalene so we're done with mary magdalene i want to finish though i was talking with one of our theologians chris sparks and he had a really good insight when i talked to him about was mary a prostitute mary magdaleno oh please mary magdalene not our mother mary mary magdalene was she a prostitute all right actually church tradition says yes now does this mean it's a bad thing does this mean that we should scrub everything about the catholic church because they're degrading women and they don't want a woman to have any power in the church so they made her a prostitute all right let's look at this people today insist that if we say mary magdalene was a reformed prostitute we're marginalizing her we're degrading her interesting now here's what chris sparks shared with me and i i i'm i'm going to probably put it in his words because i think it's fascinating the claim basically of a prostitute to claim her as a woman caught in adultery which was john chapter 8 verse 1 through 11. by saying that was mary magdalene because remember the woman they drug her in before jesus and said this woman was caught in adultery does it give her name in the gospel no but to claim that that was mary magdalene many say oppresses women the church's position as a repentant sinner who anointed christ's feet with costly ointment in luke 7 what i already explained to you must be seen as an attempt to downplay her role as a leader in the church we want to discredit her we want to knock her down this woman has jesus gave a lot of authority to and a lot of power to and a lot of grace but it's a woman we can't have that we got to knock her down this is what the criticisms of the catholic church are now some books try to rehabilitate her by trying to make out that she was an ordinary wealthy woman she was not a prostitute although she says in scripture she was liberated from seven demons seven demons now they try to say that she was always respectable she was not lifted out of a life of prostitution that was all made up by the church and this is what was all made up to keep a good woman down but remember every saint has a past and every sinner has a future so mary magdalene as she's been traditionally remembered is probably the greatest example of god's mercy if she truly was a prostitute and then was elevated to be the first person to see the resurrection can you even imagine are you serious if she was from prostitute to the first witness of the resurrection oh my gosh that's even greater glory to god than if she was this perfect pious woman to begin with so don't dismiss this thinking the church is doing something wrong here now chris said we need mary magdalene the sinner made saint just as much as we need our lady i was shocked i was shocked he goes let me explain i'm talking by example here now he made a great point he said our ladies always been perfect so how does a sinner caught in sexual sin especially or any addiction supposed to look at mary and say you know what i can never be perfect i give up i'm not going to resist this temptation i can't make it i'm giving up that's where mary magdalene comes in if you've been beaten down heard yourself confessing the same sins over and over like a broken record mary magdalene is a great example what do i mean by this we need to model chris said of a prostitute turned penitent of the woman who had been sinful and exploited and then finds jesus a man who would not abuse her the god who would not condemn her but would rather raise her up to everlasting life this gives hope to the rest of us if a prostitute can become a saint and we already know mary's perfect mary the mother of jesus but for a saint excuse me for a prostitute to become a saint this is an incredible story this is an oppression this is a beautiful story and so when we don't understand that we need an icon of hope he said for the trapped the trafficked the sinful and the sourful of the world he said in it and i'm quoting him now in an age of objectification online pornography when people are reduced to objects of lust this is why please if you're if you're caught on pornography please it's a hard habit to break but the demons will attach themselves to that image that you're viewing the eyes are the windows to the soul you open your eye to those images demons attach themselves and they'll come right in this is why mary magdalene or in the physical act of doing it this is why mary magdalene had seven demons if you are struggling with things like impatience anger unforgiveness greed lust envy jealousy you have to look at what portals maybe the demons are getting in one of the biggest portals is your eyes and so if this situation we need an icon for hope if we're trapped in this the powerless who are bought and sold for the gratification and greed of others this gives them hope it gives us hope what does it say to prostitutes who can't get out if we dare say mary magdalene was way too good to have ever been a prostitute what does that tell prostitutes you're not worthy of mercy if we're determined and convinced to say mary was not that mary magdalene was not that bad of a person what are we telling the poor ladies today that are caught in this way of life trying to get out and can't you're not worthy of god's mercy they basically give up mary magdalene is hope this is such an important thing today what does it say to those coming out of lies of exploitation and abuse that the saint who once would have been their model and guide now cannot have a past like theirs because we don't like it it degrades women no it shows that any sinner can have a become a saint this is what the message is what could be more empowering to women not just women men saint augustine for us saint augustine said lord make me chaste just not yet [Laughter] and so any man who's struggling with this not just a woman now no matter what you've done it's almost like mary magdalene tells you this you know what if mary magdalene could come here right now if mary magdalene could stand right next to me and i step aside in complete awe and say mary magdalene st mary magdalene what do you have to say to the people she would probably say no matter what you've done come to jesus as i did no matter what you've done come to jesus as i did faustina paragraph in her diary 7 23 the greater the sinner the greater the right he has to my mercy so let's pray in reparation for our sins of the flesh and the sins of others caught in this kind of life either the perpetrators or the victims human trafficking let us intercede for those a slave to addictions and forced to sell themselves to satisfy the lust of others human trafficking is a horrible reality she's the same and you know what i want to finish i keep saying my fish with mary magdalene we are done but i want to tell you one quick story about the easter egg let's take a look at our next slide there's an easter egg he is risen now easter eggs why did why did easter eggs come about an easter egg symbolizes easter because what happens the eggshell like a tomb cracks open and new life springs forth from it so you got this little chicky caught on a like a tomb the tomb cracks breaks open and out comes the chicken a new life that's the symbol of the easter egg easter is not about the easter bunny but that's what symbol came from it as the easter egg now it represents new life like mary magdalene like jesus in the tomb mary magdalene was dead she came to life now this comes an important because tradition says mary magdalene once got an invitation to a banquet at the roman emperor's house tiberius this is tradition when she met him she had a plain egg in her hand she wanted to teach and explain christ is risen this is the tradition of the easter egg so she held the egg in her hand and said the chick will come from this egg bust through life just like jesus out of the tomb or her in a way from her old life she announced christ has risen he laughed at her the emperor tiberius and said christ rising from the dead was as likely as that egg in your hand turning red and that egg turned a bright red in the middle of her hand and that became the tradition of the colored easter egg in our tradition she proclaimed the gospel to the entire imperial house interesting huh all right i spent a little too much time on mary magdalene but there could never be too much time on mary magdalene let's finish with the da vinci code why do i bring this because it's about mary magdalene it's a fictional story back in 2006 it swept the not just the country it swept the world let's go to our next slide this is the da vinci code now it's by dan brown and let's do a little bit of a review here on what this is about all right i'm going to give you just one paragraph summary in the louvre in paris the art museum there was a monk from opus dei what is that that's like a religious fraternal association like we as a religious community his name was silas now again this is a fictional novel and he apprehended this jacques sonier the museum's curator and he demanded to know where the holy grail was what's the holy grail the chalice jesus used like we do in the mass he used at the last supper now after sunier told him silas the monk shot him and leaves him for dead however sauniere had lied to silas about the grail and its real location now realizing only had a few moments to live and that he must pass on an important secret this sonya paints a pentacle on his stomach with his own blood and then draws a circle with his blood and drags himself into the center of the circle recreating the position of da vinci's vitruvian man who also left a code excuse me this guy i'm sorry he left a code he also left a code and a line of numbers and two lines of text on the ground in invisible ink so all of this is going on now let's look at our next slide there you see the mona lisa the da vinci code all together the message was decoded and it was said it said leonardo da vinci the mona lisa so they're like okay what's the connection with the holy grail leonardo da vinci and the mona lisa what is all this now keeping in mind this is all fiction but sadly many of you believed it i want to correct this the main actors learn this is the one played by tom hanks and it was right after he did forrest gump i love forrest gump so i went from my favorite movie of all time to the worst movie of all time so the main axers learned a false legend of the holy grail starting with historical evidence that the bible didn't come from god but was compiled by constantine all right if i had a dollar for every time i was told that constantine started the catholic church i would be like i'd be rich even though i don't have any money and that's good constantine did not start the catholic church constantine legalized it it's the same thing as something that existed and then he legalized it doesn't mean he started it he legalized it in rome the movie makes this false claim that jesus's divinity was not true he was not god but it was decided by a vote at the council of nicaea this is what they say and everybody believes it and that jesus was married to mary magdalene who was of royal blood and jesus had children with her now that's why they call the holy grail not the chalice that jesus drank from of the precious blood they call the holy grail mary magdalene because she had the blood of jesus in her with a baby this is preposterous it's it's beyond i mean 50 even i mean maybe not 50 years ago but 200 years ago if you would have written something like this it was insane so the holy grail is not the chalice that held the precious blood the holy grail was the body of mary magdalene because she held the real blood of jesus the baby now it shows in this book these hidden symbols in the last supper and in hidden symbols and the paintings of mary magdalene let's look at our next slide that's the holy grail well at least in what we think the holy grail would look like that's what the cup would have looked like that jesus drank from in first century jews but this book claims the holy grail as i said is mary magdalene it claims that there are documents to prove mary's bloodline is related to jesus those documents are gnostic the most heretical documents ever written finally it shows the murders that happened now these are not true opus dei was very upset because everybody thought the opus dei murdered somebody my goodness it shows the murders that happened happened because the church feared that the real secret was about to be revealed to the world jesus isn't god he ran off with mary magdalene and had a baby and and that bloodline has continued to today and he wasn't god his only mission to come to earth was to get power to become the new king david had nothing to do with the jesus of christianity all right so finally somebody stepped up named carl e olson he's the author of the da vinci hoax and he pointed out in an interview that all fiction even good fiction like hamlet or bad fiction like the da vinci code influence how we think and boy did this one he said dan brown is quite open about his goal his goal was to expose christianity and the catholic church as false and to push a certain ideology of radical feminism this guy had an agenda he's not writing fact or history or truth he's writing an agenda he claims that the novel is well researched and historically accurate really the novel's full of errors so it's amazing to think that it was accepted by anyone it's a sad commentary on our society today now i am not going to tell or defame any character here i'm going to give you the facts i'm not going to say dan brown is a bad man i'm not going to say that he is his intentions what i just said about his desire to expose the church was his own words i'm not formulating my conclusion saying well by reading the book i think dan brown is trying to do something bad i'm not saying that i am giving you none of my opinion here i am giving you none of speculation here the words i just read that he said were from himself i'm giving you facts the novel is factually incorrect the da vinci code for instance when you look at things let's look at the reaction he was asked this author of the da vinci hoax carl olson was asked about the reaction of the da vinci code versus mel gibson in the passion of the christ this is fascinating mel gibson's passion of the christ was condemned by many critics as being historically inaccurate and anti-semitic in the case of the da vinci code it was almost given universal praise there was almost no descent other than the catholic church the catholic church was very vocal about condemning this book so i'm just giving you what the church said about it and yet the novel is filled with so many errors and very biased against the catholic church but yet it was praised mel gibson was interviewed by diane sawyer i think of abc news about the passion and carl olson stated he was raked over the coast now i didn't see this interview so i'm just giving you what carl olson said carl olson said he was raked over the coals regarding his beliefs about the holocaust and the jews but when dave brown was interviewed on the today show cnn and the abc special quote jesus mary and davinci he was never asked about his dislike of the catholic church so wait a minute carl olson points out mel gibson was raked over the coals his words about not liking jewish and being anti-semitic but yet dan brown was never asked on cnn the today show or abc jesus marian da vinci about his dislike towards the catholic church even though he had stated it he was never asked on the contrary he was treated as a great scholar and historian again the words of carl olson on that abc special jesus marion da vinci there was only one catholic and it was a catholic priest i won't mention his name i have it here but i won't mention it that is notorious for not following church teaching why would you interview a catholic priest that is notorious for not following church teaching if you want to know who that is you can look it up but they had several feminists and radical christians one tv station had a panel discussing the novel and the participants came from judaism islam and the protestant faith but not one catholic the book's about the catholic church and you don't have one catholic now the co-author of this book sandra meisel the co-author of the da vinci hoax she said and i'm quoting her please if you're a fan i'm i'm just giving you the quotes of the people in the end dan brown has penned a poorly written atrociously researched mess his book is more than just a story of a quest for the grail he wholly reinterprets falsely the grail instead of being jesus's chalice brown claims the holy grail was mary magdalene she was the vessel that held the blood of jesus in her womb by burying his children over the centuries the grail keepers have been guarding the true and continuing bloodline of christ in the relics of mary magdalene not a material vessel this is what he's claiming that's false brown claims that the quest for the holy grail is the quest to kneel before the bones of mary magdalene that's false the bones of mary magdalene have never ever ever been taught by the church to be the holy grail this is a hoax this would surely have surprised even sir galahad and the other grail knights who were looking for jesus chalice so we're going to finish there the mad albino of opus dei silas the monk would stop at nothing to reveal the secret it would stop the do not everything to stop the revealing of the secret of the holy grail according to the story so there's a barrage of codes puzzles mysteries conspiracies quote dan brown everyone loves a conspiracy those are his own words everyone loves a conspiracy he said every faith in the world is based on fabrication sorry mr brown you're wrong the catholic faith is based 100 percent on the truth of the one and living god god three persons and one who came to earth the second person of the trinity in the incarnation to spring the message of us of salvation to redeem broken humanity to give us everlasting life he actually cites the principle sources within his text but listen to these sources the sources have been not found in any historical fact the amerovindians didn't found paris which he claims the pope at the time he was writing about did not live in rome the pope lived in avignon he stated all this as fact and said the church burned five million women as witches this is listed as fact what is the real fact the real fact that during the european witch craze there wasn't five million deaths there was thirty thousand some say as high as fifty thousand way less than five million and they were not all done by the church actually most of them were done by the king not all were women and not all were burned still this is what was said so these ed these errors are a multitude now brown treats let's take our next slide here's a picture of a beautiful gothic catholic church the author treats gothic architecture look at how beautiful that church is why are churches beautiful because god deserves the best in beauty he claimed that gothic architecture is full of goddess-worshipping symbols and coded messages he says the church were built around the female anatomy where do you come up with this stuff he said the churches were built by the knights templar sorry mr brown the knights templar had nothing to do with the cathedrals of the time they were commissioned by the bishops that's when the churches were built the knights templar were an uneducated man with no knowledge of sacred geometry and how to build the pyramids this is all a fantasy the round churches were not an example of a female anatomy they were an example and built in honor of the church of the holy sepulchre the tomb of christ come on romanesque churches which i think are the most pretty they even predate the founding of the templars so how in the world could the templars have built them when the romanesque churches predate the founding of the templars so neither brown nor his sources consider the symbolism of what was went into the churches when they were built they were stated they were very clear in the intention of the churches it wasn't goddess worship but that's what we're told all right the holy blood according to him descended from jesus and his wife mary magdalene to the morovingenian dynasty in the dark ages in france surviving to this day in certain french families now where does he get all this let's look at our next slide he uses the book the templar revelation which was a book on your screen and it views an organization this tonight's templar as a cult of secret goddess worshipers who preserve the ancient gnostic wisdom and records of christ saying he wasn't god and his only mission was power this is not what the knights templar were about they didn't give their life for that they gave their life for the truth he makes christ and mary magdalene sex partners why aren't the catholics if we even draw a picture of a certain prophet in other faiths you better worry about your life that's crazy too but where were the catholics standing up and saying this is deplorable calling our god jesus christ a sex partner of mary magdalene where was the outcry i mean as a priest i'm sitting back here saying why didn't i say something back then i am now he said that mary magdalene and jesus were sex partners performing the erotic mysteries of isis no not the radical islamic group the goddess from these books he used the holy blood the holy grail and the templar revelation he discredits the whole bible he says jesus is neither the messiah nor a humble carpenter but a wealthy religious teacher bent on power his goal was to use the rich mary magdalene to reassume the throne of david this is insanity brown claims that christ wasn't even considered divine unto the council of nicea in 325 as i said before that's ridiculous he talks about constantine that he was a lifelong sun worshiper ordered all other scriptures destroyed that's why we have no complete gospel copies before the fourth century the point is we have copies of the copies yes they don't know what happened to the originals but the verbatim of the originals it says it now history loses a lot of things but god preserved it through the monks remember primitive church documents and the testimony of even those who didn't like the nicean fathers confirm that christians have always believed jesus is god always and he is our savior so much so they were willing to die for it he keeps referring to the church as the vatican even at times when the popes weren't even there they were in avignon then saint catherine brought him back to rome he doesn't even know what he's talking about brown's treatment and again i'm using the words here of the da vinci hoax brown's treatment of mary magdalene is sheer delusion he claims she's no penitent prostitute but christ's royal helper and who was really he wanted to be the head of the church but because the church hated women they made peter the head well didn't jesus say you are peter and upon this rock i will build my church i don't think he said upon mary magdalene but it doesn't mean she doesn't have a role what it does mean is the church is following the words of christ she fled the book says with her offspring to france where the medieval cathars kept the real teachings of jesus alive what are these real teachings of jesus brown says and he gets his information from two gnostic documents the gospel of philip and the gospel of mary now let me clarify something here the heretical gospel of philip does not mean it was written by philip the heretical gospel of mary does not mean it was written by mary there are people who use the name he used them to prove that mary magdalene was christ's companion and sexual partner and the apostles were jealous because jesus used to kiss her on the mouth and favored her over them have you ever heard such garbage i'm not making this up i'm just telling you what is in there and millions and millions and millions of people believed it that's leading souls away from jesus christ our job is to bring souls to jesus christ and one of the ways is by telling the truth all right so then let's go on our next slide what about the knights templar where did they come from well he defamed a lot of the catholic church they are the oldest military religious order founded in 1118 to protect pilgrims going to the holy land if you didn't see my talk a couple weeks ago i did one on the crusades and they were disbanded after the crusades when needs changed it's kind of like after the world war ii ended the the plants in detroit like willow run that was building bombers they used to build automobiles and i worked in the detroit auto plants as an industrial engineering manager and in world war ii they switched all those plants over to building bombers then after world war ii ended they no longer built bombers there was no need for bombers they went back to building cars needs changed so after the crusades needs changed and the knights templar was disbanded they no longer needed to rescue people from the holy land that were being beheaded now brown wrongfully ascribes the suspension of these templars to the pope says pope clement v did it because they were blackmailing with the about the grail secret and so he had him arrested charged them falsely had him tortured and killed but you know what the reality is the initiative for crushing the time plars came from king philip the fair of france look up real history want to know real history read somebody like warren carroll the founder of christendom college that's where i get a lot of my training and and knowledge of history from seminary you have to read the true objective sources yes it's true about 120 templars were burned by local not the church local courts in france because they wouldn't confess clement pope clement v was this weak sickly frenchman that was manipulated by the king he didn't burn anybody in rome as john brown claims because he lived in avignon how could he personally have burned knight's templar in rome when he wasn't even in rome last page you're all like yay he even twisted da vinci himself let's go to our next slide there's a picture of the last supper in leonardo da vinci he claims to have first run across his views about da vinci when he was quote studying art history in seville but what's interesting is they correspond point by point from the book the templar revelation hmm interesting he claims that da vinci received hundreds of lucrative vatican commissions actually you know what the truth is because carl olson looked it up in the da vinci hoax it was one and that one was never executed it was never um carried out next slide the mona lisa all of you have seen the mona lisa now he presents the mona lisa as an androgynous self-portrait of da vinci it is pretty much completely accepted that she was a real woman madonna lisa the wife of francesco de bartolome [Music] can look that up so wrapping up here much of brown's argument centers around da vinci's last supper you've seen the last supper it's a painting he considers it full of coded messages that reveal the truth about jesus and the holy grail why brown points out that there's no chalice on the table and he says there you go the chalice is not a cup it's mary magdalene look on the table there's no chalice and millions of catholics fell for this wow you gotta know our faith you know why let's look at our next slide here's a picture of it here's a picture of da vinci's painting that is the last supper but guess what it was referring to the moment when jesus warned quote one of you will betray me john 13 21 da vinci is painting the last supper based on the gospel of john there is no institution narrative of the eucharist in the gospel of john in the gospel of john jesus does not lift the bread and say the prayer or lift the wine and say the prayer those are in the other synoptic gospels matthew mark and luke there's no institution narrative in the gospel of john so davinci didn't put the eucharist or the chalice on the table he was following the gospel of john again because john didn't have it does it mean it didn't happen no and the person sitting next to jesus look at the circle of brother mark and put it back on the screen see where the circle is that is not mary magdalene non-catholics i remember i remember before i even came to the marians and it was right about the time i came to marriage 2006. everybody's seeing did you see that look at the da vinci code proves look at that painting it's a feminine that can't be a man that looks like a woman well they had long hair back then but it is john portrayed as an effeminate da vinci himself in his you da vinci would do that it was like uh who is the guy alfred hitchcock that used to insert himself in his own movies da vinci would sometimes insert himself da vinci was an effeminate youth similar to how he portrayed himself in john the baptist now although da vinci was yes a troubled homosexual this is true brown's contention that he coded his paintings with these anti-christian messages is absolutely unprovable and i want to finish with the famous of all questions and i'm going to address it for mark brumley he's a a good guy part of augustine institute was jesus married because all along here you've been hearing me say that he claims jesus is married some of you might be thinking well was he and doing my research for this talk i was watching a video online with who i used to really like ron howard tom hanks and one of the producers from this movie and they asked him about jesus being married and he said i would be thrilled if jesus was married because the catholic church hates gay people and if jesus was married would show he wasn't gay and everybody laughed we just sit by and watch the sacredness of our faith be mocked and that's what happened let's talk about this let's finish with this the new testament doesn't say that jesus had a wife there's no hint of it but again that doesn't mean it didn't happen right well let's look deeper then christianity holds that jesus gave himself wholly to the mission of the will of the father spreading the word of the father the kingdom of god if jesus was married it's why we priests don't marry why do we priests not marry because we are wholly dedicated to the mission of christ this mission is not eight to five a good father's job should be eight to five because before and after that it's his family a good father will come home and then turn into dad husband the gospels tell us that the unmarried man unmarried woman can focus fully on god but the married woman has all the essences of family and husband and children but the unmarried woman can focus fully on god that doesn't mean being married is inferior it just means well i mean being called the religious life is a higher calling but that doesn't mean for you maybe god called you to the religious life maybe he called you to marriage but the point is one of the reasons i delayed my vocation to the priesthood was i wanted to marry gina i we talked about it i i i was like lord i was praying that the church would change their rule so that i could quit get married and then become a priest and then i realized can't do that but now i look back there is no way i could be married first of all no girl could handle me but secondly because there's no way then that i could give god my full attention half your time has to be with your family half my time would be with god that would mean both of them suffer half the time that would mean half the time my family suffers i'm not with them and half the time god i'm not doing his work being a priest is not eight to five every day starts at six a.m goes to midnight seven days a week yeah in the night times i throw in a pair of sweats and might turn on the game but i'm sitting there working on my emails to you or typing up my next talk it's always focused on doing god's work there's no way i could be married even though i would love it i never thought i could go to bed every night alone the rest of my life that's what delayed my vocation lord there's no way i can crawl into an empty bed every day the rest of my life now i can't imagine not being a priest can't imagine it i would love you i would love to be married but there's no desire anymore the desire is to be married to the church the desire is to be serving the will of god and that's what jesus did so it makes sense now why do i say all that all right if jesus was married at some point either his marriage would have been compromised or his mission from the father would have been compromised neither scenario fits the christian view of jesus he was dedicated fully to doing the will of the father but he also was a spouse well wait a minute father why wouldn't jesus be good enough to be a spouse he was who was his bride the church the church paul discusses this relationship between husbands and wives in first corinthian first corinthians 7 if jesus was married don't you think he would have mentioned jesus as the perfect example if jesus had a female human wife and paul is writing about marriage in first corinthians 7 it is absolutely guaranteed that he would have pointed to jesus and said you want a father's husband you want to see a good example jesus and his wife mary magdalene no way in ephesians five it's about the relationship between jesus and his bride not a woman the church some apostles were they married yes some took their wives along to assist them this was first corinthians 9 verse 5 and there were other times where they left them behind now we have no similar mentions of jesus ever bringing a wife or leaving a wife behind as the apostles did nothing about a wife continued jesus ministry after he died like the apostles did you know that after the apostles lived who continued their ministry their wives but as the dedication and went on because remember these guys were married before jesus called them well father if the apostles could marry why aren't priests mirroring now you just told me you can't do it the apostles did they were married first that's why the church does allow some men who are married first to become priests church is not against that there are some men that come over from the anglican faith that are already married they become priests i know married priests but you don't become married or you don't get married after having already been a priest if you are married before there are ways you can become a priest if you are a priest first you don't get married after that's matching scripture all right so let's finish some will say the most jewish men of jesus's time and age were expected to marry and have wives this is important no some of the essenes at qumran who are they the dead sea scroll people they practice celibacy do you know the old testament jeremiah with celibate john the baptist appears to have been celibate no wife jesus talks about those who are eunuchs for the kingdom of god now that doesn't mean literally be castrated but it means you're not using that part of god's gift and your humanity for raising children because you're dedicated to your spouse the church i told the story before that when i was really struggling coming to the church i had a bible on the table and i was struggling with answering the call of the priesthood because man again did i want to marry jean and have children but the bible was on the table one day and i'm cleaning up my stuff and rocky's there begging me for dinner and i remember i'm shuffling things around and i turned around and i had the bible open and i knocked the bible by accident and it literally flipped 180 degrees and landed on the floor and i pulled open the bible just like augustine i always remember the story where augustine looked at a specific passage and i looked at it and sure enough it was matthew 19 12. if any of you are given that gift you should accept it what gift being a eunuch for the church not physically castrated but spiritually for the church and i'm not castrated i can promise you physically or spiritually because the priest gives gives life now instead of having three or four or five or eight or ten children we've got millions most of you now on the live stream all right so to finish i keep saying that no document within 150 years that jesus's death depicts or even implies that he had such a relationship some might argue that mary magdalene was jesus's lover rather than his wife okay father he wasn't married but he was his lover or she was his lover no accusations against jesus are all in the bible everything he was accused of is in the bible so mary magdalene was never mentioned as an accusation if she was accused or he was accused of having her as a lover it would appear in the bible and refute it that didn't happen it was such a claim in the early if such a claim was in the early church there would have been evidence in the bible against it if it were true why would the bible writers put it in the bible to risk it mary i mean not not the scandal but just mirror it all if jesus was if mary magdalene was a skeleton in jesus's closet why would the gospel writers mention her more than anybody else more than any other woman all right was it possible for jesus to been attracted to her oh this is a good question father is it possible that jesus had a physical attraction to a female he was a man so in a way in a way yes but i didn't say disordered jesus was human in his nature he had human emotions like anger this is all in the gospels anger love grief joy and he had human desires hunger thirst rest but jesus has no sin so he has no concupiscence which would make any attraction to a female anything but pure and holy it would not have been distorted so it would not have been impure so to finish at our last slide jesus his bride let's take a look there that's our last slide the bride is the church so there is no apparent purpose for him to have needed romantic attraction he had his bride the church scriptures do not mention that he was ever attracted he didn't need to be and if he was it wasn't disordered in the least because he didn't have concupiscence because he didn't have sin he was focused on his mission of saving us jesus points us jesus points to celibacy as a spiritual ideal in matthew 19. so if he's saying that this gift is special why would he himself not have it you can't give what you don't have so if jesus is saying it's the highest gift oh but i'm not gonna be that myself wouldn't be valid it would be strange for him to propose that this spiritual ideal is the best but him himself not have it if he was married understanding the church as his mystical bride would have never been developed the gospel writers never would have developed the theory that the bride of christ is the church if christ had a real female human bride period so i want to finish with a less than two minute video on your screen i want to show you the church's reaction to the da vinci code when it came out in 2006 it's only two minutes long take a look because it'll show you what the church actually said about the da vinci code in just two weeks the da vinci code movie will hit cinemas all over the world in the eternal city the media blitz has already begun the film is based on dan brown's bestseller which the vatican has harshly criticized it's certainly disturbing that no respect is being shown for the hundreds of millions of people who believe in christ the church and the gospels but it's the result of ignorance and arrogance according to the author christ is not divine he's a regular person the plot has ruffled many feathers and not just catholic ones it attacks the first millennium which is common in common and where we have exactly our the same responsibility if there is a responsibility to take as the roman catholic church the church has also criticized the way the novel presents catholics it presents some elements of the catholic church as criminals but also as stupid criminals they're the killer and the superior who runs around with a suitcase full of notes which are clearly identifiable it is a farce but what worries the vatican most is the author's claim that the book is based on historical fact certainly revisionist history should be condemned and courageously rejected because the church is only interested in history and the truth getting people to believe that a novel is a history book is unacceptable catholics have been quick to react with some encouraging the public to go to another movie over the hedge the weekend it comes out and others like the group opus dei asking producers sony films to insert a disclaimer we are asking sony the company that is producing the movie on the best-selling book by dan brown to include a disclaimer saying that it's pure fiction and that any reference to real persons or things is just a coincidence american bishops are using the internet as a tool to educate the public the u.s bishops conference through the catholic communications campaign has launched a website jesus decoded and with the idea that at least the book has stirred up interest in jesus let's give people some accurate information analysts say sony needs to urgently decide how serious it is about not offending one of the world's leading religions well thank you everybody for watching and you know please to summarize here my intent isn't to say somebody has bad intent my intent is to give the facts and that you know and understand your catholic faith and that you can learn more about it so you can love it even more and we do invite you to be part of our marian family uh if mark can show the mic prayer slide join us be part of it there's no cost there's no obligation it takes 10 seconds go to visit micprayers.org be part of our marian family and you too can share in all the graces of our masses prayers penances and that is what being part of our faith is all about so until next week may almighty god bless you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen why be a marian helper because we mary and father celebrate a mass for you and all our members each and every day you can share in all the prayers good works and merits of all the miriam priests and brothers around the world and now you can share the graces just as if you were a marian priest or brother every all souls day we see a mass for all the deceased members of the association of marian helpers again there's no way that after we die we can help ourselves but we have to rely on the prayers of those here on earth and we members of the marian fathers will be praying for you as a deceased member of our association you can share in the graces of the perpetual novena to the divine mercy remember jesus told saint faustina that the chaplet of divine mercy is one of the most powerful prayers we can make and every day here at the shrine of divine mercy we pray it and you can share in those graces so if you have any questions or you want to learn more how to be a marian helper please visit mic prayers or call 1-800-462-7426 and let me personally pray for you and your loved ones thank you and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 114,844

Rating: 4.9016013 out of 5

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, fr. chris alar, blessed virgin, Mary, Immaculate Heart, blessing, worship, Mary Magdalene, Da Vinci Code, Knights Templar, Holy Grail, Da Vinci Hoax, Dan Brown, Bible, Last Supper, Empty Tomb, Leonardo Da Vinci

Id: OueRNGJ6Hps

Length: 89min 17sec (5357 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021