We've Been Warned...

the Transfiguration was a very important event in the lives of the Apostles Peter James and John and it is an important event for us too in many ways I believe that we are seeing history repeat itself today there are uncanny parallels between what happened over two thousand years ago and what might be happening today in our own era let's take a look at what's happening on Mount Tabor and got the Gospel reading from today from the gospel of Saint Mark but before we get to the gospel and say Mark I just want to mention something that's in the gospel of Saint Luke about this very same story and it just jumped out at me because I see a lot of this now in our world today Saint Luke says in his story the apostles were sound asleep they were in deep sleep deep sleep so I I conceive our Lord and these three Apostles climbing up the mountain and our Lord is probably praying up there and once again those three apostles are sleeping how many people today are asleep when the very glory of God might be in front of them when they do wake up they see Jesus and his face is as bright as the sun his clothes become white as light Saint Matthew tells us wow what a sight it's kind of reminiscent of Moses in the Old Testament is it not when he would talk to God and then he would go out and talk to the people his face was so radiant that people couldn't stand it they were scared to death and so he would have to wear a veil across his face to hide the glory of God that's shown on his face and then the apostles saw of course Moses and Elijah Moses representing the Fulfillment of the law and Elijah the Fulfillment of the prophets and right at that moment when Peter wakes up he gets excited does he not good old Peter impetuous Peter he gets really excited and he says oh lord it's good to be here let's go ahead and build three tents or three Tabernacles or whatever whatever uh translation you prefer three booths for example let's build three tenths remember Peter likes to do his own thing he really does about a week before this event our Lord warned the apostles about his upcoming passion and crucifixion and if you remember Peter didn't want to hear it he rejected it outright no cross in my life no and then the apostles heard the voice of God the Father this is my beloved Son listen to him and at that moment they were so afraid they were so terrified that they prostrate themselves down on the ground and they wouldn't even look up they were too afraid to and then Jesus touches them we're told and he says do not be afraid get up do not be afraid no matter how many things happen to you do not be afraid just like our Lord's passion when he walked the Earth our Lord's body his church will have to go through a similar passion before the resurrection before the Great era of peace that Our Lady of Fatima has promised us in the Catholic catechism the catechism of the Catholic Church number 672 we read before Christ's Second Coming the church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers the church will enter the glory of the Kingdom only through this final Passover when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection end of quote Saint John Paul II talked about this theme often that's why he made sure it was in the catechism of the Catholic Church Saint John Paul II talked about the final confrontation the confrontation between the kingdom of darkness and God's Kingdom the Kingdom of Light in fact Saint John Paul II before he was elected Pope about three years before he was elected Pope he was giving a talk to American Bishops in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and this is what he told the Bishops back in 1976. he said we are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation Humanity has ever gone through I do not think that wide Circles of the American society or wide Circles of the Christian Community realize this for a fully he says people aren't getting it things are falling apart before your very eyes and you're not getting it I hope he doesn't mind that I'm editing a little bit here he says we are now facing the final confrontation between the church and the anti-church of the gospel and the anti-gospel this confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence it is a trial which the whole church must take up I wish I could have been there to see the American Bishops and what they were what their facial expressions were and stuff like that how they were receiving this message such a very important message such an obvious message did you know Pope Benedict XVI just before he died wrote a letter and he wrote in this letter that the power of antichrist is increasing really that's interesting he didn't say the spirit of antichrist is increasing but Pope Benedict XVI actually said the power of antichrist is increasing I suppose he was alluding to the fact that there is a radical atheistic secularism which is now sweeping throughout the world and yes even within the church our culture is like a sinking ship in the middle of a hurricane the dark world is trying to take down the Kingdom of Light by fostering the wholesale rejection of our god-given principles of faith and morality by saying that certain sins for example are good right abortion is good that's a right that's a good thing God suicide is good assisted suicide is great um gay marriage is great and all these other things pornography is is is a freedom right and they're telling us that these things are good when at the same time they are destroying people they are destroying Souls they are putting people in danger of not reaching to Heaven which is what this gospel message today during the Transfiguration is all about to participate in the glory of God to participate in his very life I can't help but to think of mass attendance you know before covid do you know what the percentage of Catholics that went to Catholic mass were here in America before kovid 30 percent after covid a third of them didn't come back so now we have about 20 percent of American Catholics going to Sunday mass in so-called Catholic Europe it's almost scandalous I think the percentage is four percent in France the eldest daughter of the church it's less than 10 percent throughout the throughout the countries of Western Europe crucidum is in Ruins it would seem but just as the apostles received this illumination of Christ's Transfiguration to prepare them for his passion and to give them hope of the final resurrection and joy in heaven forever with God so he and his love and mercy will provide us with the same help he will provide us with the same illumination and the light and Truth because he loves us too much to abandon us he loves us too much because love is his nature perhaps God will illumine our consciences and let us realize how we have offended him how we have not loved him properly some Mystics and Saints have proclaimed that such an event may come in this era believe it or not that's up to you I tend to believe it that God is going to give us a great grace to be able to turn to him with all of our hearts because we can't seem to do it on our own but right now he wants you and me to be reflections of His Marvelous transfiguring transforming light by the way we live our lives as serious Catholics this is not a time to sit on the fence this is not a time to be lukewarm this is not a time to be a Sunday Catholic this is a time to get the message out to get the message out that I want everyone to know Jesus is my best friend and not be ashamed of it many of you remember father Lucian Hayden the great uncle of brother Adam over here and I just loved father Lucian but I remember hearing the story that he would stop at these um toll booths for you young people who don't know what a toll booth is we live in a crazy world where everything's gone electronic but they used to have these toll booths on the highways and you would have to stop at that toll booth and pay a fee if you wanted to continue to drive on that particular Road and so father Lucian would stop at the toll booth to pay his toll and he would tell the person who was running the toll booth I'd like to introduce you to my best friend and he would hand that person a holy card with the face of the Sacred Heart on it with a prayer on the back of the card I always thought that was kind of neat that was kind of neat he was telling that somebody that it is best friend I remember hearing that one time he was at a toll booth and he started to pass out the card of our Lord and the guy said I already have that and right away father Lucian whipped out a card of our Lady and says let me introduce you to his mother and he was not afraid to evangelize he was not afraid of being a Catholic he didn't put his faith under a bushel basket I as a priest and I love being a priest I as a priest want everyone to know that I'm a priest I want everyone to know that I gave my life to Christ I want everyone to know that I am available to introduce them to my best friend when I'm out traveling I travel of course with my collar on my Roman collar a lot of interesting things happen sometimes you get sneers and then you can say thank you Jesus I can share in your persecution but a lot of times you'll get people walking up to you looking for help just three months ago I was on a flight from Nashville heading out towards California and I like my window seat you know so that I can just lean against the window and go to sleep because I like to sleep on planes and just before the flight took off this young lady maybe about 25 years old chose the seat right beside me it was on Southwest Airlines we didn't have assigned seats you know after the flight took off a conversation started and this young lady said father I sat in this seat because I saw your collar and what began was a three-hour conversation about the church about the sacredness of marriage about so many things that I was thinking bad I was just planning on having an app but when that plane landed I was filled with joy because I've shared the good news about my best friend which is something that all of us must do all of us must do this if there's anyone out there that thinks that it's too late for them to turn to Jesus that's a lie there are people out there who are waiting for us to invite them back they're discouraged they're despairing they think there's no hope [Music] but it's never too late until it's too late it's never too late unless it's too late we have Saint Peter look at Peter first pope of the church great saint we put him on a pedestal as he deserves fabulous saint but he was a big sinner before he became a big saint very much so it Saints like Peter that give me hope you know before the resurrection all Peter was interested in was rank he would get jealous he even lied during the passion of our Lord he blasphemed he denied our Lord three times and when he was on the beach after the resurrection at that cold that fire with charcoal he was able to tell our Lord yes I do love you yes I do love you yes I do love you we've talked about this before but he still wasn't changed radically as we were told during our Retreat this week he was changed radically on the day of Pentecost wimpy Peter who betrayed Christ and even after the resurrection was really struggling with the cross after the Holy Spirit came upon him and filled his heart and soul with his power he went out into the streets with the other Apostles and they converted thousands of people these wimpy men who were scared to death converted thousands the first day there's more of us here have you all received confirmation we have the same gifts of the Apostles it's never too late let's reach out to the lost sheep out there and let's bring him back and if there's any young men out there who have a desire to show people the Light of Christ who want to share their best friend Jesus Christ with other people I say get off the fence come join the fathers of Mercy Father Joseph our vocation director is like the Maytag Man the serviceman of only only older people remember that commercial I'm sorry there was this old commercial about Maytag Appliances and they would show the Maytag service man who the poor guy had nothing to do because maytags were so good they never broke down well you know sometimes Father Joseph and our other vocation directors over the years felt like the Maytag Man at times that's flood them let's flood them with a lot of work man if we had another 20 or 30 or 40 but you know we're a small community we only have 30 priests some people think we're huge you know because we're on YouTube and all these other things we're a small community but we've held our own we've preached thousands of Parish missions over the last 20 years we've heard hundreds of thousands of confessions it's exciting work we also work in parishes we staff the uh um Shrine of our of Our Lady of champion up in Wisconsin we do a lot of things and I know there are a lot of young men out there who are called to join the fathers of Mercy but they're sitting on the fence right now jump off the fence jump off the fence and come join us you know we have one young man here today brother Zach who jumped off the fence he's excited about bringing Christ's light to other people and especially bringing our Lord in the Eucharist people bringing the light and Truth literally to people as an acolyte of the Catholic Church and so I congratulate brother Zachary and congratulate his mom and dad and his sister who are here in the front pew and I look forward to his final vows in January and then maybe next spring maybe or next summer or maybe an ordination to the diaconate right it's coming coming but we need more guys please pray please ask people have you ever thought about being a father of Mercy I'm being selfish here if somebody's meant to join another order that's wonderful too but anyway but in just a moment here brother Zachary will be instituted as an acolyte and so I have these words for him given to him by the church my dear son in Christ you have been chosen for the ministry of acolyte you will have a special role in the church's Ministry the summit and source of the church's life is the Eucharist which builds up the Christian Community and makes it grow it is your responsibility to assist priests and deacons and carrying out their Ministry and as a special minister to give Holy Communion to the faithful at the Liturgy and to the sick because you are specially called to this ministry you shall strive to live more fully by the Lord's sacrifice and be molded more perfectly in its likeness you should seek to understand the Deep spiritual meaning of what you do so that you may offer yourself daily to God as a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to him through Jesus Christ in performing your ministry bear in mind that as you share the one bread with your brothers and sisters so you form one body with them show a sincere love for Christ's mystical body God's holy people and especially for the weak and the sick be obedient to the Commandment which the lord gave to his Apostles at the Last Supper love one another as I also have loved you

Channel: Fathers of Mercy

Views: 121,415

Keywords: Fathers of Mercy, Auburn Kentucky, 806 Shaker Museum Road Auburn Kentucky 42206, Pontifical Order, The Warning, Illumination of Conscience, End Times, Catholic, Will I Go to Heaven, Sin, Death, Hope, Mercy, Jesus Christ

Id: QsgTkCfoG60

Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2023