Don’t Be Ashamed of Christ： The FEAR of Judgement
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
142.56216
Summary
In this episode, Fr. Fr. John Henry confesses that he forgot his own name at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. at the end of January, and that he was too embarrassed to admit it.
Transcript
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That doesn't just cut to the heart. It shames the silence of so many shepherds, and maybe sometimes
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us too. My friends, I have a public confession to make, a confession of my sins. I know that's
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going to sound weird, but it's true. I have this confession to make, and I'm not suggesting that,
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you know, public confession for everyone is a good thing. But in this case, I actually feel
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the Lord has called me to do this. So here's what happened. Well, in fact, before I begin,
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let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
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and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. A short break in this broadcast, just to say, as many of you probably
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know, we're into our campaign right now, and a generous donor has given us a matching gift.
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You're able to double your impact right now, dollar for dollar, just for the next three days. I wanted
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to make this brief announcement here so that you could do that. Find the link below this video to
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make your contribution. Do it now so that we can continue to fight for life, faith, family, and
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freedom. In January, at the time of the March for Life in Washington, DC, of course, I saw a fellow
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that I've seen before quite a few times, especially in Rome. He's a professional photographer. I've
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probably bumped into him like half a dozen times, and I've spoken with him a few times. And I have to
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confess that I'm not really good at remembering names. And no, no, just think so. That's not the
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confession. But it is what comes next. So I saw this fellow, and there I was. I was like racking my brain
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for his name. I did remember him. And I remembered about him that he's a very devout Catholic. You can
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tell by his demeanor, by his quality, that people, when they're really close to the Lord, have. They
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seem to shine or glow, if you will. So he came up to me and said, hello. He used my name. Hello, John
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Henry. And awkwardly, I just said, hello, and began speaking with him as if I knew him really
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well, which I did, except for the name. And here's where the sin comes in. So he was kind
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enough and good enough to give me his card, likely actually to help me with my memory lapse
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on his name. But rather than accept the kind offer and admit my memory lapse and be done
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with it, no, no, no. I had to fake it. I had to make it seem like I didn't forget. And
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of course, that just made things worse. I now had his name, but purposefully didn't use his
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name out of some kind of insane trying to look good thing or that I'm really with it. Anyway,
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I went away from there and I knew I had done something really stupid. So the next day, after
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some reflection and contrition, I wrote the good man confessing my foolishness and pride.
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In fact, here's what I said to him. I said, it was great to meet you last night. Thank you
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for being so kind as to give me your card. I was embarrassed that I did not remember your
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name. And I must confess that pride prevented me from mentioning this to you. I'm sorry.
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I re-read just now in a book that the Lord loves the weak. And so I was comforted in my weakness.
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And I wanted to reach out to tell you that while I'm bad with names, I'm good with hearts.
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And from the very first time I met you, your love for Christ and his truth spoke loudly to me,
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even though not much was said. So keep up, my dear brother in the faith, your love for Jesus.
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And don't let the hardships of the church, nor the Judases in the church, nor even the prideful
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fools like me ever dissuade you from pursuing Jesus. And so that's what I wrote him. So you might
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think that that was enough. Why do a public confession of my foolishness and prideful sin? Well,
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I went straight from there, from the Washington March for Life to the California Walk for Life
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in San Francisco. And while in San Francisco, outside of a planned parenthood, I saw this pro-life
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leader confess publicly that she underwent an abortion. But get this, she said she had an abortion,
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not because she was raped or because she couldn't afford a child. She committed an abortion out of
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embarrassment. She was mortified about what her parents would think about her being pregnant.
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So she ended the life of her child. In fact, she said it over and over again. Watch.
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I was a 17-year-old high school student, and I found out I was pregnant. And I didn't know what
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to do. I didn't want anyone to know that I was actually sexually active. And so out of fear of
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embarrassment, out of fear of embarrassment, I chose to kill my child. That's a choice I can't undo.
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I'm stuck with that. And so thank God I found healing through Jesus Christ. Thank God I went to
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Rachel's Vineyard. Thank God I know that He is a merciful God. I thought at the time, a sin coming
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from embarrassment, a motivation to sin that I just fell to myself. And so from then on, I felt I should
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make this public confession to serve as a warning for sins stemming from embarrassment. Have you ever
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even heard that spoken of before in the past, like about a sin that comes from embarrassment? Well, it's
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actually in the teaching of the Church, but under different terms, different names that you may not
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have thought were related. The Catholic Church does address the matter of sinning due to embarrassment
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or shame. And this is something that is termed sins out of fear of human respect or just human
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respect. The saints and moral theologians have written quite clearly, usually under that name of
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human respect. So what does the Church teach? It says that sins due to embarrassment or human respect,
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when someone sins or omits a good action, that means doesn't do a good action out of embarrassment,
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it falls under the sin known as human respect. And that sin, it means putting fear of others' opinions
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above the fear and love of God. It's when we fail to do what is right or say what is true because we're
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worried about being judged or mocked or disliked by other people. So here are some practical
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examples of what I'm talking about. We skip grace before meals in public because we don't want to
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draw attention or seem too religious. We stay silent when our co-workers mock the Church because we're
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afraid of being judged or labeled or left out. We attend immoral celebrations like same-sex weddings
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because we fear offending people, maybe our own family, more than offending God. We dress immodestly
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to fit in because we want to be admired and accepted even if it costs our purity. We use crude or blasphemous
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language in conversation because we want to be part of the group, not the uptight one.
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We avoid correcting loved ones who are in serious sin because we're afraid of being rejected or causing
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tension, even when their souls are at stake. We put off going to confession because we're embarrassed.
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Someone might see us in the line or we fear admitting what we've done even to the priest.
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We hide our Catholic faith when it's inconvenient. We take off our scapulars or avoid talking about
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church teaching and stay quiet when moral truth is under attack. We compromise our vote or values to
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avoid conflict, supporting evil policies or candidates because we don't want to lose friends or be called names.
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We join sinful trends online or say nothing when falsehood spreads online because being liked or going
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viral or keeping the peace feels easier or better than standing for truth.
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And finally, and this is especially to some Catholics who are devout, finally we stand and receive Holy
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Communion in the hand, even though we know we should be receiving our Lord on our knees and on our tongues,
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just like Saint Pope John Paul II did and commended us to do by giving us his own example.
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But like with the woman in the video, certain sins of human respect can be deadly, they can be mortal.
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When it comes to not getting up from your get-together so you can get to Sunday Mass when it's a Sunday,
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it becomes a mortal or deadly sin, which bars you from communion until after you get to confession.
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Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
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And he urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the King so that individuals and states
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would submit once more to the rule of their Savior.
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And that is why LifeSite News is raising up the image of Christ the King across the United States.
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Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com
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Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory.
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Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
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Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologicae,
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He says when he's discussing the virtue of fortitude, he says,
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It belongs to fortitude to curb fear and not to allow one's soul to be disturbed by it.
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And Saint Alphonsus Liguori gave a whole sermon on human respect.
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And in it, he highlights the danger of conforming to expectations from friends or parents or
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relatives or peers or classmates or colleagues, spouses even, at the expense of one's faith.
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Kill their own souls by losing the grace of God through human respect and to please worldly friends.
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But even more than that, he says this, and I quote,
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Oh, how many souls has human respect that great enemy of our salvation sent to hell?
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So, how much of this goes on in the world today, do you think?
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And it makes a real difference, not just to Christians.
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A very clear warning against being ashamed or embarrassed to do the right thing for Christ,
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despite it being socially awkward, came from a very unlikely source back in 2008.
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And it was so stark that these quotes have remained with me all these years.
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The famous anti-Catholic atheist named Penn Jillette, who was co-host at the time of a very
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popular television show in North America called Penn and Teller.
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And I've always said, you know, that I don't respect people who don't proselytize.
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If you believe that there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not
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getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it's not really worth
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telling them this because it would make it socially awkward.
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And atheists who think that people shouldn't proselytize, just leave me alone.
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How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?
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How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible
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I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't
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believe it, that truck was bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you.
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Isn't it amazing that an atheist like Penn Jillette could say something that so convicts
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our own bishops, bishops who out of fear of losing donations or status or the favor of the elites
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or their fellow bishops and cardinals, they refuse to preach the hard truths.
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Penn Jillette said, how much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize just because it might
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be socially awkward? That doesn't just cut to the heart. It shames the silence of so many shepherds.
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And maybe sometimes us too, when we don't say the hard truths, when we know we should.
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So let me give you five remedies against sin stemming from human respect, from embarrassment.
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Number one, fear God more than man. Develop a holy fear of God, not a servile fear,
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but a reverent, a fear of offending him since he is so good and worthy of all our love.
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Love. Realize that God's judgment matters infinitely more than any human being.
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Secondly, practice fortitude. Fortitude is a gift of the Holy Spirit and a cardinal virtue.
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It is God's strength that enables us to overcome fear and remain firm in doing good,
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even in the face of ridicule or persecution. Start with small things like overcoming our fear to say
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grace in public. Remember the prayer before the crucifix when we pray, passion of Christ, strengthen me.
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The third thing, meditate on that passion of Christ. Christ was mocked and scourged and crucified,
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and he endured all out of love. And he did not shrink back out of human respect. Picture it. Be there in
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spirit. Watch his willingness to voluntarily take on this horrendous suffering for you and for me.
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Number four, regular confession and spiritual direction. Frequent access to the sacraments will help
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you grow in grace and moral courage. And a good confessor can help you discern
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when you're compromising for human approval. Number five, invoke the saints, especially those
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who faced mockery. Saints like Thomas More, Joan of Arc, John the Baptist, they all suffered martyrdom
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for refusing to compromise the truth out of human respect. Let me go through a couple of those
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because it's so powerful. Saint Thomas More, a martyr who refused to trade truth for approval,
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one of the most brilliant and respected men in England. He was a lawyer, a scholar, and eventually
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Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII. He had the admiration of the king, of the nobility, and the whole
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country, all the people. His wit and wisdom made him beloved across the country, even by all the common
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folk. But when King Henry VIII demanded his loyalty in an unlawful divorce and declared himself the head of the
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church, Thomas More refused to sign the oath acknowledging that. He remained silent for a time, hoping to avoid
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conflict, but ultimately silence wasn't enough for the king. Saint Thomas More was arrested and imprisoned in the
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Tower of London. While imprisoned, he was visited by his beloved daughter, Margaret, who along with his wife
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and family begged Thomas More to sign the oath to spare his life to come home and be with them. They pleaded
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that it was just a signature, that God would understand that he could keep his true beliefs in his heart.
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But Thomas More gently, but firmly refused. He said, when a man takes an oath. And this is to his beloved
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daughter, Meg, in a letter. He said, when a man takes an oath, he's holding his own self in his hands,
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like water. And if he opens his fingers, then he needn't hope to find himself again.
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Eventually, he was condemned for treason and beheaded on July 6th, 1535. His last words are legendary.
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I die the king's good servant, but God's first. In the face of pressure, not only from political powers,
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but even from his own family, Saint Thomas More chose truth over compromise, conscience over comfort,
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and God's approval over man's approval. He is a radiant example of a saint who conquered the sin of human
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respect, of embarrassment, not with bravado, but with quiet fidelity, fatherly love, and heroic courage.
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There's another saint, Saint Perpetua. She died only 203 years after Jesus.
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She was a mother who chose Christ over family approval. Saint Perpetua was a young Roman noblewoman
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and a new Christian living in Carthage. She was just 22 years old and a mother to an infant when she
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was arrested during a wave of persecution under the emperor Septimus Cerberus. She was imprisoned
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with a group of fellow Caracumans, including her slave Felicity, who was pregnant at the time.
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Perpetua's father, a pagan, begged her repeatedly to renounce her faith and to save her life and spare her
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family, her family the shame. He actually came to the prison and wept before her, holding her own
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child in his arms. And he pleaded in these words, have pity on your father, if I deserve to be called
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your father. Have pity on your son, the infant son he carried in his arms in front of her. This mother,
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this young mother, was asked to betray her faith so that she could appease her father and even be there
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for her son. It was brutal. But Perpetua was filled with a faith and interior strength. She calmly refused
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and she wrote in her prison diary, I cannot call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian. Even the
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Roman governor tried to pressure her by bringing her father into the courtroom where she was being
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judged during the trial. And her father again begged her to recant. And the judge, seeing her emotions, said,
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Spare your father's white hair, spare your infant son, offer the sacrifice to the emperor. But Perpetua stood
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firm in Christ declaring, I will not. She was sentenced to death and entered the arena with joy. The arena
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where wild animals were going to rip her apart. And she even encouraged her companions and forgave her
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executioners. In her diary, The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, it is one of the oldest and most
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moving first-hand accounts of martyrdom in the church. So that's it, my dear friends. There is my
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confession. I hope it has helped some of you to avoid sinning due to embarrassment like I did.
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And if this has helped you, please share it. You never know who may need an extra nudge to stand firm.
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God bless you and pray for me. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.
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Aloha, everyone. This is Jason Jones for LifeSide News. We hope you enjoyed this video. For more content
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like this, check the link in the description. You can also connect with us on social media to stay up to
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date with the latest news on life, faith, family, and freedom. Thanks for watching and may God bless you.