>>Can't you just feel it, the conflict is becoming
apparent in our culture? It reminds me of those
words of John Paul II: "We're now living in the final
confrontation between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, between
the Church and the anti-Church, between Christ
and the Antichrist." And if we don't choose
to know God's word, to believe God's word
and follow God's word, we're going to be a sitting duck
for all kinds of confusion and all kinds of disorder. Those are really important choices that
people have to make. >>And these choices
are difficult. Who am I going to marry? What kind of life
am I going to live? How am I going to raise my kids? What am I going to do
with my time, my talent, and my treasure? And I have to make
a choice today. Jesus says to each one of us, "I came that you might have
life and have it to the full." The question is:
Do we want it? >>Hey, welcome back to<i>
The Choices We Face</i> . We have a familiar guest today. One of our most popular
guests, Father John Riccardo. >>How are you, Ralph? >>I'm good, Father John. How are you? >>I'm doing great,
good to be with you, as always. >>Yeah. You're still a pastor of
Our Lady of Good Counsel, Priest of the
Archdiocese of Detroit. >>Last I checked,
I'm still at both places. >>Yeah, maybe before we begin, just give a little update
about what's happening in the parish and what's happening
in the Archdiocese. >>You know, the most exciting
thing that's happening in the Archdiocese is the Archbishop's
pastoral letter on the New Evangelization called
"Unleash the Gospel." So that's both impacting
the whole Archdiocese, and very much us as a parish. UnleashTheGospel.org. That's where you want
to go to check it out. It's an extraordinary-
I know you've been deeply involved in it, too. But what an amazing gift to
the Church, not just locally, but nationally, I think. >>Tell people a little bit about
the whole amazing thing that the Archbishop is leading the
Archdiocese in, you know, changing the culture to a
culture of evangelization? >>We hear the expression
over and over again, "From maintenance to mission." And sometimes it can just become
a set of buzzwords, right. But the Archbishop really
is taking that seriously, and he's intent on really taking
to heart John Paul's words, Benedict's words,
Pope Francis' words to become a missionary Church,
to really go out. To be solidly rooted in
the teaching of the Church, but to understand
the Church exists for the sake of those
who don't belong. And that the Lord's Great
Commission and his mandate is to go and tell other people
about the difference that only Jesus can make. And what a timely word right now
in the culture that you and I are living in, which has no
hope apart from Jesus, right? >>Yeah, no, that's really true,
it doesn't look very promising. >>It has no hope
apart from Jesus, and it has tons of
hope with Jesus. >>Right, right. I know you've been very
involved in the Archdiocese. You've been involved
in a national level. You were a missionary of mercy during the
Jubilee Year of Mercy. And you've just been really in
touch with the universal Church, the local Church,
the national Church. What do you feel like the Holy Spirit's saying
to the Church right now? >>That's a great question. I'm trying to pray
through this myself. Here's my sense right now. My sense is that it's almost
like the Lord is continually creating opportunities-
I'm thinking especially in our country- waiting for the
Church to speak into the opportunities in a way that
only the body of Christ can. And I think one of the biggest places that I see
it is just division. We're a fractured culture
on so many levels, right? >>And it seems like it's getting
worse and worse, doesn't it? >>And the rhetoric is up,
and the antagonism is up. The way we speak to each
other and about each other is oftentimes just vile. And the Church- unfortunately,
sometimes we kind of fall back into speaking the
way the world speaks, where we speak in
political language, which is not our expertise. Our expertise is proclaiming
the power of the Gospel, which can change lives. And I think what I sense from
the Lord right now is almost a call for us to be prophetic. To really- to do
what we alone can do. Not because we're smart,
not because we're gifted. Not because of anything other
than the fact that we have encountered Jesus, and we know
what He can do in our lives. Because to know him isn't just
to amass some new information, which is kind of interesting. It brings about a total
transformation in our hearts, in our minds. And once we experience that,
then to be able to go out and to tell others what can happen. And I'm thinking, again, of
just forgiveness and unity, and how desperately our country
is in need of that right now. And only the Gospel can do it,
and the Gospel has done it over and over and over and over
again throughout human history. >>I really agree with you. The Church is uniquely
commissioned by God, uniquely situated to speak a
word that is the only meaningful word that really can be spoken. But it almost looks like
there's something that has to be overcome in the Church,
a timidity, a fear, sort of feeling like, "Gee, we
don't have standing anymore. Nobody will listen." You know, there's
the whole thing about the clergy sex-abuse scandal. It's still kind of like a little pall hanging over
people a little bit. And then there's sort of, like,
the open conflict we're seeing in the Church right now. So somehow we have to be able to gather our courage to preach the
Gospel despite our weakness, despite our own
problems, you know. So that's really- I think
that's holding us back a little bit from speaking
that prophetic word. >>I agree. And so maybe a question might
be when we talk- when we say "The Church," what do we
mean, or who do we mean? And oftentimes, I think folks
hear that expression and they think collars or pectoral
crosses or cardinals. >>Them. >>Yeah, exactly, them. But it's really you. It's really us. I mean, the work of
mission and ministry, as you talk about
over and over again, that belongs in a particular
way to the lay-faithful. And if we're waiting for the
hierarchical Church to say something into the situation,
we might, I don't know- but we might be
waiting a long time. But what the Lord is
propelling us to do, I think, is for each of us- and this
is what the Archbishop's talking about- to take seriously the
task that's entrusted to us to make the most of every
opportunity that we have each day to be intentional
and deliberate, to speak into the situations
at work, in our neighborhoods, in our schools,
in sporting events, whatever gatherings
that we're at. To be able just to speak
into it delicately, gently, lovingly, and to let Him work. >>That's a really important
distinction you just made there. It's so easy for us
laypeople to fall back into, "Why don't they do something,"
and pointing to the leadership. And the leadership does have a great responsibility
to do something. But we all have a responsibility
every day, just like you say. One of the things that I felt
like was really delightful about Pope Francis' Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. He says, "If you know
that God loves you, you already know enough
to tell other people." You don't have to wait until
you get further training. And further training will help. But he says, "You know enough to
tell somebody about God's love and the hope that's
in God's love." And then he says we're
all called to be preachers, not public preaching, but all
the informal preaching that we have in our
everyday circumstances, just like you were saying about
our family and work situations. And then he even says that,
after the conversation, if it seems appropriate, offer
to pray for the person about the matters that you
were talking about. And I felt like that was pretty
exciting because, you know, a lot of times we talk
to people and we don't have all the answers. And we've just heard a problem
we don't know how to solve, or they have a terrible
thing going on in their life. And we don't have
all the answers. We can't solve all the problems. But we can turn with the person
to Jesus and allow Jesus into the conversation, allow
Jesus into the problem. And wherever two or
three gather together, He's there in their name. Wherever two or three
agree on anything, He stands ready to grant it. So just being able to look for
opportunities to minister the love of God in daily life. And Pope Francis says, "Even look for an
opportunity to pray." And a lot of people will accept
prayer who maybe not even believers, not even clear
about what they believe. But they appreciate the offer of love and hope that comes with
offering to pray for people. >>I think one of the things that
holds a lot of Catholics back from doing this is exactly what
you said: I'm afraid to get into a conversation because
what if they ask X, or what do I do
if they say this? And it's almost this impression,
like I've got to come with the entire Catechism and
the Bible memorized before I can get into a question. >>I think I need a master's
degree in theology. >>Yeah, and here's where
Pope Francis uses the word "accompaniment"
over and over again. And it's really just- so folks
ask me, "What do I do?" Well, talk to them. Ask them questions. How are you doing? Just walk and live
life with people, and then when
opportunities arise, you just say something
like you just mentioned. "Hey, you know what? Could I just pray with
you right now for that?" Yeah, that would be great. A friend of mine-
you know this guy, too. He's a priest here in Detroit. He makes a point to- you know,
a lot of us when we go out to dinner, we say grace,
we kind of look around. Okay, it's clear. No one's here. He intentionally waits for the waiter or the waitress
to come back to say grace. >>Isn't that something? >>And then he looks and says, "We're about to say
grace right now. Is there anything that
we can pray for you for?" >>Isn't that something? That's great. >>That didn't take a
doctorate to come up with. >>Right. >>He doesn't have
the Catechism there. He's just simply inviting
somebody and saying, "Hey, we're going to turn
to God right now. Would you like us
to pray with you?" >>Yeah, it's shocking. But people- it opens up to
a new possibility for them. It really opens their-
they have to face something there like, "Hey, these people
really believe in God." >>I was at a restaurant
with some friends, and we had a waiter who
was taking care of us. A great guy. He had a limp in his leg. He played some college football, was hoping to try
out for the NFL. So we're talking
back and forth and at a- he clearly had some faith. At a certain point, we just
looked at him and said, "Would you mind if we just
prayed with you right now for healing for your leg? He said,
"No, that would be great." So he sits down,
we all hold hands. We're in this really
nice restaurant. I'm sure people are
looking at us like, "What in the world is going on?" The guy just starts to weep. That didn't take- all that
took was what you were saying earlier, overcoming
a sense of timidity, of what are people
going to think. Well, he was- it was
like Peter and John to the crippled man, right. I don't have anything
to give you monetarily, but I have everything to give
you in the name of Jesus. Whatever, right. So can we offer you the power
of God right now in your life? And he was sitting there
going, "Absolutely." >>Yeah, isn't that great? It's so easy to evangelize once
you feel like you're called to it and it's important and it
can make a difference in somebody's life, even an
internal difference. Like inviting people to events. There's a lot of good stuff
going on in a lot of parishes, a lot of adult ed, a lot
of visiting lecturers, a lot of missions and
retreats and Alpha courses and various other things. And you could make an eternal
difference in somebody's life by inviting them and going
with them, saying, "Even if you don't want to
hear Scott Hahn one more time, go so people can hear,"
type of thing. Or when they read a good book- and we're going to talk
about your book in a minute. Father John's written a book
called<i> Heaven Starts Now:</i> <i> Becoming a Saint Day by Day</i> . But when you read a good book,
don't just throw it on a pile in your bedroom or
something like that, but give it to somebody else. Ask them to read it and ask for
their feedback on it so they feel a little
pressure to read it. >>When you go into the
chapel for adoration, if you go to a parish where
they have perpetual exposition, invite somebody that you know at
work who's going through a rough time, or someone in your
neighborhood and just say, "Hey, I appreciate- I heard what
you said the other day at the gathering or whatever. I'm going to pray right now. Would you like to go with me?" Just take 15 minutes. >>I hadn't thought about that,
that's a good one, yeah. >>What a simple thing to do. People never- how would they
know that that even happens unless we invited them? And then they get to sit there,
they encounter the Lord. They're still,
and it gives God a chance to bust
into their lives. >>Yeah really, absolutely. Well, we're going to
take a little break now. We have a little message we
want to share with people. When we come back, I'd like to talk a
little bit about your book. >>Sure. >>Okay, good. >>Our family has spanned
the centuries and the globe. With God's grace, we started
hospitals to care for the sick. We established orphanages
and help the poor. We are the largest charitable
organization on the planet, bringing comfort
to those in need. We educate more children
than any other institution. We developed the
scientific method and founded the college system. We defend the dignity of human
life and uphold marriage. Guided by the Holy Spirit,
we compiled the Bible. We are transformed by sacred
scripture and sacred tradition, which have guided
us for 2,000 years. We are the Catholic Church. With over 1 billion
in our family sharing in the Sacraments and
fullness of the Christian faith. Jesus started our Church when he
said to Peter, the first Pope, "You are rock, and upon this
rock I will build my Church." So if you've been away
from the Catholic Church, we invite you to
take another look. Visit CatholicsComeHome.org
today. We are Catholic. Welcome home. >>You know, many of you know
Father John Riccardo from his wonderful teaching,
his radio programs, his podcast, his website. And if you aren't familiar with
Father John and what he's doing and his teaching,
it's very inspiring. I think he's the best teacher I
know about the Catholic faith. What's your website? >>OLGCParish.net. >>OLGCParish.net. And they can find
your sermons- >>I can cure insomnia. [laughing] There are a lot of talks there. >>Yeah, that's great. A lot of really great talks. Every time I hear them
I really feel inspired. And for the first time, you put some of these
talks together in a book. >>I did. >>And the book's called <i> Heaven Starts Now:
Becoming a Saint Day by Day</i> . And the chapter headings
are really interesting. I'm just going to read
some of them here. "Forgiveness." "Fear and anxiety." "Suffering." "Greed." "Surrender." "Praise and worship,"
"The Primacy of Love." How does what you've written
there relate to what we've been speaking about, about a word
to speak to people that us laypeople need to be aware of? >>So the idea behind the book is
what are the different obstacles that hold most of us back
from really living in the freedom that God wants
to give us, right? So if I included lust, it
would've been a much bigger book, and that's why that's
not in there, I think. So these are some of the-
what my experience, both personally and
then pastorally, is what holds us back. And I think, quite frankly,
the biggest thing that holds us back is un-forgiveness,
bitterness, resentment. And it's what's holding
our culture back. So I remember Father Francis
Martin, who you knew well, who just passed away
not too long ago, he used to say over
and over again, "The world's understanding of revolution is the oppressed
become the oppressors, and the oppressors
become the oppressed." But that's not a revolution,
that's normalcy. Revolution is the oppressors and
the oppressed become friends. >>The lion and
the lamb lay down. >>They actually sit at the
table and love each other, and they become
brothers and sisters. And I think our culture
hears that, and they think, "Well, that's just kind
of pie in the sky." The important thing- I think
the word that the Church has to speak into the culture, and
that's what that chapter on reconciliation and forgiveness
is getting at, is God does this. Think of Immaculee
over in Rwanda. Think of Corrie ten Boom
and her experience in coming out of the
Holocaust in World War II. Think of Stephen and
Saul, who becomes Paul. Think of example after example
after example of people who have encountered the
power of the Gospel, experienced forgiveness in
their own lives, being set free. And then kind of
being unleashed, to use the
Archbishop's language, to go be dispensers of
that mercy to others. Without that,
we're going nowhere. We're going nowhere. With that, the culture
can be transformed. And again, the Church
has seen this happen. I read- I was in Poland a couple years ago
leading a pilgrimage. One of my favorite countries. And we're doing kind
of a walking tour. I'd done it before. And we're getting to the
discussion about what happened to those who would just oppress
the Poles and the Jewish people as well especially, right. And Hans Frank was mentioned. So he was the governor
general of Poland. Just a butcher. I mean, responsible for maybe
2 million deaths, right. >>That's a lot. >>So we get to his end. He gets-
he's executed at Nuremberg. And my immediate
reaction is, "Good." And then I start
reading about his life. And as I'm reading his life
and I'm just filled with just revulsion towards
this person, right. And I get across this passage
that says he's baptized and Nuremberg, and his last words-
I believe his last words he says are, "May Jesus have
mercy on my soul." And I went, "Oh, no." >>He got in at the end. >>The guy repents, you know. And then I'm feeling convicted as all get out for
the way I'm thinking. So I started reading
about his life. So a Catholic priest, a guy from
New York, a Capuchin I think, he was in Patton's army, was
responsible for liberating several of the
concentration camps. So he's in the war
for three, four years. He sees up close and personal
what the Nazis had done. Because he's fluent in German,
Patton recommends him to be a chaplain to the war
criminals at Nuremberg. >>Wow, even the
fact that a chaplain was appointed to
them is something. >>And he takes this guy under his tutelage and he
leads him to repentance. Who can do that, right,
other than the Gospel, other than the power
of the Holy Spirit? Who can do that? So it's not like
this is not possible. This is possible. Pope Benedict- we were just
talking offline a second ago- he has this great passage in a
new book of collection of his sermons where he says the only
thing- it's paraphrase, but, "The only thing that can free us from the past and open
up the future is absolution." And he tells a story of a guy
back in the '40s or so who's just living a really dissolute
life, but who wasn't happy. And he searches out some
priests, and he says, "They're just offering
me kind of abstract, theological stuff that
doesn't really impact me." And someone tells him, "You
should go talk to this guy." And that guy sits down
with him and says, "You're happy with the
way you're living?" He says, "No, of course not." He says, "You would want to
change, then, if you could?" He says, "Yeah." And the priest turns to
him and says, "Kneel down." He says, "What?" He says, "Kneel down." The man kneels down,
and the priest says, "I absolve you from all
your sins in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit." And the guy says what
happened there was- or, "At that moment it wasn't
like I became a new man. It was like I got my life back. I became myself again." >>Yeah, this oppressive weight
on me, this darkness on me, this unease at the center
of my soul was lifted, and I was who I was. >>And so then he's able to go
out and to be a vessel of mercy to other people in his life,
because he's just encountered God's forgiveness for himself. >>Father John, we have to
call people to repentance. We have to call people to the
Sacrament of Reconciliation. And even a lot of practicing
Catholics have un-forgiveness in their heart, have wounds
and hurts that they feel like they never can forgive. They were passed
over for promotions. They weren't the favorite
child in their family. There's all kinds of resentments and disappointments and
frustrations and guilt. And could you just
speak directly to the folks at this camera here? >>So one of the things that I'm
just seeing over and over again, and we're doing at the parish,
is just telling our own stories. So myself, some of
the other priests, some of the deacons
who are with us. We're just trying to really take
off our own masks and to show everybody we all got
stuff in our lives, right? We all have a mess in our lives. Everybody's got issues. People who've heard us-
I told the story of my mom, whose mom and dad
went through a bitter divorce when she was a
freshman in college. And her resentment and hostility
towards her dad- I went to her and just said, "Ma, I think
you have a story to tell. Can I tell it?" And she just kind of looked
at me and said, "Yes, honey. Tell them that God is real. Tell them that He
can soften hearts. Tell them that you can change. Tell them that He can reconcile people who used
to hate each other." So I shared that story, and the power of the Gospel
to transform her life. And then not just her life, but
because her life before that had affected so many other
people in a negative way, now that she's encountered
the love of God, oh, it just kind of rippled
out into everybody. Our home became different. They became a pillar
in the parish. People lined up at my
mom and dad's house. You were one of them. I remember how often you would
come over when I was younger. They just became kind of a
lighthouse in a city on a hill where other couples could go
and say, "We want what you have. Not your money, not your
power, not your prestige, not your stuff. We want the faith that you
have that's changed your life, because we see something
is different in you now. And we know we're stuck and we
don't want to be stuck anymore. We're tired of being stuck." And so just to hear over and over again that God
does these things. You know, they're not confined to the pages of
the New Testament. As the Archbishop
puts in his letter, "We are living
right now Acts 29." It's a great expression. If you're not aware, Acts
only has 28 chapters, right. >>The Acts of the
Apostles are continuing. >>Yeah, we're still there. The spirit that moved here is
moving here and moving there, and wants to break into
a marriage that's cold, that's got resentments or
hardships or bitterness. Maybe your spouse
has been unfaithful. Maybe they're
addicted to something. Maybe, for whatever reason, ice has just begun to kind
of go around your heart. The spirit wants to
come in, soften that, and then use you to be an
instrument to give forgiveness, to give mercy to whoever
it is who's hurt you. And then that will just spread. It has to spread. It can't be contained, right? So you don't have to wait
for the Church to do that. You be the Church. You are the Church. You're part of the
body of Christ. You do that. And then look for chances
and just ask the Lord, "Lord, show me who in my life
most needs my forgiveness." And that won't take too
long to get an answer to. And then you can go out and you
can just sit down with someone or write a letter to someone,
or say- or reach out and simply say, "Hey, I just
want to tell you, I'm really sorry," for whatever. "I ask your forgiveness." Or, "I just want you to know I
forgive you and I'm praying for you and I hope you're well." >>Yeah. Praying for somebody
who's "Our enemy" is one of the best ways
to develop a love for them. Jesus says, "Love your enemies and bless those
who persecute you." And one of the best ways to
soften your heart to somebody that has hurt you is to pray
for them and to remember how much God loves them. Remember how much Jesus died for them and how much God
is concerned about them. And letting that start to
come into our heart, too. And praying for
your enemies is really, I've found really helpful. >>I've heard the Lord say to me
on a number of occasions- not too long ago He said it
to me about another guy who just really hurt me. He says, "John, do you
want to get even with him? Offer Mass for him. You want vengeance? Pray for him." And I went, "Oh, okay,
yeah that's right. That's the kind of vengeance
I'm supposed to ask for. Lord, I want you to win him." >>Yeah, shower him with
your grace and mercy, free him. >>Exactly. >>Well, there's a lot
more we could say. And I want to say before we end
today that if you're a Catholic, the blessing of the
Sacrament of Reconciliation is just right there for us. And we can actually
hear those words, "I absolve you in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," and walk
out of the confessional free. And so if you haven't been
to Confession in a long time, there's a lot of stuff
that's kind of built up, a lot of stuff. And you really need
to let go of it. You really need to repent. You really need to put
it before the Lord. You really need
to give forgiveness and receive forgiveness. And if you haven't been to the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, please go. And another thing that's coming
to my mind right now is the possibility of a
general Confession. If it's been a long time and
there's just a lot of stuff, or maybe you haven't made
good confessions in the past, see if there's a priest who'd
be willing to actually spend a little time with you where you
can really go over your whole life and kind of get it all
out and really start fresh. I've written a booklet called<i>
What Happens When I Die</i> , and we really need to know what
happens when we die because that helps us know how we
can live right now. And we'd like to give it to you
at no cost, just for the asking. It's also a great booklet you
can share with somebody else as a way of wakening up the faith
and waking them up to what really matters in life. Just call the 800 number
or go to our website, RenewalMinistries.net,
and click on "Free Booklet" and we'll get it
right out to you. Father John, thanks so much
for being with us today. >>Joy, thanks Ralph. >>Keep on ministering to people. >>Amen. >>Okay. We all die, but not
all deaths are the same. To die in unrepented sin is a
bitter death that will only lead to the indescribable agony of
eternal separation from God. But to die as a Christian,
our sins forgiven, is to die a very
different kind of death; a death which has
now been transformed into a doorway to paradise. I've written a booklet called<i>
What Happens When I Die</i> to help you and I end up in paradise
rather than in Hell. Go to our website,
RenewalMinistries.net, and simply click on the booklet,
or call the number on the screen and we'll send it
right out to you just for the
asking for free. What a gift we've been given. We can die in the love of
Christ and be with Him forever. ♪
