The astonishing revelation recorded in St. Faustina's diary on the day of Pope Francis' birth
Summary
On the day of the birth of Pope Francis, there was a fascinating diary entry inside St. Faustina s diary. It was written on December 17th, 1936, the day that Pope Francis was born. In this episode, Father James Altman explains what Divine Mercy is all about.
Transcript
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Welcome to the John Henry Weston Show. I've got an awesome guest today.
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You know him quite well. Father James Altman has been a lightning rod in the Church.
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He's really like a John the Baptist sent during these times of darkness to show where the light
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is. And in light of what we're heading up to, this Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. I know many
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of you are in the midst of the Novena for Divine Mercy. There are so many aspects of Divine Mercy
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that are just fascinating that Father's going to get into with us. But I want to focus also on one
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really unbelievable revelation inside the diary which gave us Divine Mercy, inside St. Faustina's
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diary. On the day of the birth of Pope Francis, of Jorge Maria Bergoglio, December 17, 1936,
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there was a fascinating diary entry inside St. Faustina's diary, the Saint of Divine Mercy.
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You're going to want to stay tuned to this episode.
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It is. During this week, especially when we are so much in need of mercy. Yeah, I couldn't ask it for a
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better time. Thank you for the privilege. Thank you, Father. If you wouldn't mind, please lead us
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off in a prayer. I will. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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For our prayer, the conversion prayer, Divine Mercy. You expired, Jesus, but the source of life
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gushed forth, gushed forth for souls. In the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
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The fount of life, unfathomable divine mercy. Emvelop the whole world, and empty yourself upon us.
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No blood and water which gushed forth in the heart of Jesus is a fount of mercy for us.
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I trust in you. I trust in you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Amen. Amen. Well, there we are. Thank you, Father.
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So tell us, Father, Divine Mercy. What is it all about?
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Saint Faustina, what's she all about? And let's maybe start there.
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Okay. Well, in order to have mercy, we need to understand that that's just not Santa Claus
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coming down from his sleigh with a big bag full of presents wrapped up mercy.
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Well, here, you need a bigger one than you. That's not what mercy is. That's not how it works.
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And what Saint Faustina, which came at a time when the world was in chaos, as it still is,
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is so much in need of mercy. Then, as now, was trying to tell us that in order to have mercy,
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it doesn't matter how evil you are, no matter what you have done, though your sins be as scarlet.
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Nevertheless, repent. And for the mercy, that's how it gets to you.
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That's how it is given to you. First, repentance and mercy.
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And in fact, every single prophet, you know, you can think of Jonah as a perfect example,
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wanted to preach, repent, repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent for the sake
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of your eternal soul. Repent. It was always repent. You know, the first words I had to say,
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John the Baptist, when he went off preaching was repent. And the first words of Jesus,
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basically, in his public ministry was, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. That is the
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first. What does repent mean, Father? Ultimately, it means, and you hear this repentance, what that
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means in the act of contrition, which is you can have, oh my God, I'm hardly sorry for having offended
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thee. That's where it starts. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Lord, for having offended thee. And I detest
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my sins because, because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Of course, that's imperfect
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contrition, which we'll talk about in the parable of the prodigal son. But most of all, and here comes
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the most beautiful repentance, but most of all, because they've offended you, my God, we're all good
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and deserving of all my love. That's perfect contrition. Not many people get there. Not
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many people really get, we, we all repent because we're afraid of the punishment part. We're afraid of
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the consequences. I mean, when, in real life, when we have to repent to other human beings, I'm so
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sorry for having offended you. Sometimes a child will say that to the parent because he knows what's
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coming. Uh, as adults, we try to say it because we have offended somebody and we don't want the
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repercussions or we actually genuinely have that sort of a perfect contrition where you've hurt someone
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and they start to cry and you know, it's your fault. You can't help it. Say, I'm sorry. I didn't really
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mean it. You know, always sin always seems like a good idea at the time. That's why we do it. Uh, but,
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but when we're found out when the consequences of our bad behavior, uh, take shape, it doesn't seem
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like such a good idea. Uh, the, one of the great problems we have in the world is that the consequences
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of sin aren't immediate. Uh, they're somewhat delayed. And, uh, some of the great saints, doctors
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of the church have said, listen, one of, one of the things that fools people because they want to be
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told is the idea that, well, I can sin, nothing happened. Therefore I can sin again, or I can sin
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then I can repent, but then I can sin again because nothing's really going to happen. Uh, I just did a
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full clock on these great doctors of the church and how they said, don't get a little presumptuous.
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That's a sin in and of itself. Don't get a little presumptuous about sinning freely. Uh, because
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we, oh, first of all, we don't know the day we're going to get called out of this world and which
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time, if you're just sitting freely, it's too late. Uh, so, uh, that's what repentance is to
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actually say, all right, uh, I was selfish and I chose to sin and now I'm sorry, whether it's
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imperfect because I fear the loss of heaven or perfect because I have offended you, my Lord.
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And we'll get to the, the beauty of perfect contrition, uh, later on in, in our, in our
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talk here today. So repentance or repentance is first of all, you have to know you've sinned
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and then to be sorry for it for whatever reason. And, and then actually a firm purpose of amendment,
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try to adjust your life. Not, okay, I'm sorry, but I'm going to keep doing it. Uh, choosing my
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favorite vices. We really have to struggle with that daily. And you know, it's a good thing we
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have that. Otherwise we might get a little big at it. I mean, most dangerous position you're ever in
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is to say, Oh, I, I have conquered this sin and, and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Oh no,
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no. You know, if you send in a particular area before you're, uh, it's like scars when you, when
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you're scarred from a wound. Yeah. You're, you're sort of healed there, but, but it can, that wound
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can be reopened easier than had it never been wounded in the first place. So never let us get
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presumptuous or to live too cocky about, I have conquered anything. Uh, because that's, you're just
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setting yourself up for Satan. You're opening the door for Satan to attack. When you don't realize
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I better rely on Jesus. I better hold tight to Jesus every single day, better implore him to give
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me strength this day to get through the challenges or temptations of the day. And they'll come
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when you're least prepared for it because you haven't continued to prepare for it because you
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think you've conquered it. That's, that's just dangerous ground. One of those questions, father,
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I think a lot of people have is, is that firm purpose of amendment. When you go into confession
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and you're, you know, you're supposed to sort of, I'll never commit the sin again. So help me God.
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But at the same time, you know, like I've done this a thousand times. I've been to confession a
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thousand times and, and I'm still doing it. Right. There's every likelihood that I'm going to do it
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again. I don't want to. Right. Does it still count?
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Yes. Uh, remember what does it act of contrition? You know, they, they made it off flowery and made
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it something. It wasn't, we had the perfect act of contrition that the nuns pretty much told us.
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And it was, I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace, right? Which means we, we're going to need
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that grace every single day. It's not with the help of thy grace today. And then I'm good to go for the
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next month. No, no, no. I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace. Um, father crappy, who, uh, he had a
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brilliant talk once where a woman had come into confession and it's okay to say, this is a general
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thing. So it's not revealing anything. And, and we, every single priest, I can tell you, every
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single priest hears it as well. The same line, which is, well, I've done it all. I keep doing
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the sin father and, and, you know, I, no matter what I keep doing it. So it's that same thing you
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were just saying in, uh, so father crappy said to her, well, would you like a different set of sins?
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Because no matter what it is, we will always be confronted with sin in our, our journey toward
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purification. We will become more and more aware, the closer we get to God of our own imperfections.
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I used to think, but Pope St. John Paul II used to go to confession once a week. And I thought,
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what did he possibly, could he possibly have done in his spirituality, in his holiness, in his
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sacredness, in his depth of love and prayer? What could he possibly have done? But that's what
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the great saints do. The closer they get to our Lord and his pure love, the more they realize,
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understand their own weakness and, uh, and a recollection of those things of their whole life
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that, uh, where they have been weak or where they have failed, where they have fallen short.
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So, um, every single one of us, and watch, here's a better way to understand it. If you ever think
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that you're so good that you haven't sinned, that, I don't know a single great saint. Well,
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I know not one great saint, not one saint has ever said something so foolish as that, because we all
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have room for improvement until the day we die, in which case we better hope we're supposed to be at
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that point. Right? So, so I, I try to tell people, it's got, I use that line from father
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crappy. What would you rather have a different set of sins? Cause you're good. Listen, you're going to
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get, if you think you've conquered this one, like this is a big one in your life. You think this is
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it, right? You get done with that one. Let's say through the help of thy grace, our heavenly father's
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grace, that you do make great strides in overcoming a particular vice, whatever vice it might be,
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gambling, pornography, um, whatever, uh, eating, uh, uh, drink, alcohol, uh, drug addiction. Uh,
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well, if you've made great strides in that, okay, fine. But what, what our Lord does in his mercy
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is show you another area of your life that needs work. Uh, so if, if, if you're still struggling
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with the one thing, you're always going to be struggling with something. At least now, you know
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what it is and you know how to work on it with the help of God's grace. So I, uh, what, what really
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gets me in the compassion, but isn't so much that person that comes in and said, I, I still get angry
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with my spouse. It's really funny because oftentimes what a priest hears is the sins of the spouse,
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not the sin of the confessing. I know. I mean, you're not here to tell me what your husband and
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your wife did. You're supposed to be telling me what you did. Um, and, but, but what, what really
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is, is galling is, is some people come in after having not been there for six months, a year, a couple
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of years. And they'll say something like, well, I guess I've lost my patience a few times. And I'm
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thinking, buddy, I have sinned more since I got up this morning than you have in the last three
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years. Come on. You have not done a good examination of your conscience. As far as I know, you're
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not levitating, you know, on the grace of God. So an examination of conscience quickly reveals
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that we, that we are sinners. So what? That's why Jesus came. Listen, no sin, no need for salvation.
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No sin, no need for a savior. So, uh, I'm frankly, I'm kind of glad that he came to save
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us, came to offer us mercy. He doesn't give it to us. He offers it to us. We have to accept
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it and we accept it through our repentance. Uh, so thanks be to God because I have a keen
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awareness of, and I often said it and I often need it. I think I'm the worst sinner in this
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room. Uh, so yeah, when, when people have that struggle with that, that the idea that,
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um, that they keep doing the same things over and over again, you know, it means you still
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got work to do. So what? Keep working. I think that answers that question.
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Absolutely. Father, one of the things that we experienced today is that very many people
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are assuaged in their sins actually by sometimes priests and bishops and so on in the church
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who give them a skewed opinion of where the morality of the church is at.
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The church's stances never change even on hard issues like, uh, contraception, uh, things like
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that. But some people have been told actually even by priests in confessional sometimes, oh,
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posh posh, that's nothing. That's olden days stuff right now. That's totally allowed.
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We've developed, we've learned a lot more. Yeah. Wow. Far as I know, and this is where Jorge
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Bergoglio got it so wrong again, actual apostasy to say that the 10 commandments are not rigid.
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They're not cut in stone. They're flexible. They're adjustable to our time and place. No, no,
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no. We've, that God does not conform to us. We conform to him. And, and one, as, as you know,
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my own bishop said to me, well, uh, we bishops have failed to teach people right from wrong for
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the last 50 years. Not only did they not teach us what was right from wrong, they actively taught us
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what was wrong is right. That's what's going on in Germany and Austria right now with the full approval
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of the man in the white cassock. There's been no, you know, he's quick to condemn the, the devotion of
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these nuns here in the United States, but he's letting those, those apostates in Germany and Austria
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teach absolutely, absolute heresy, leading people into eternal damnation down the broad road to
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destruction. He's letting that go. So, so not only are they not teaching us what is right and wrong,
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they're actually teaching us what is wrong is right. And that, that is absolutely inexcusable.
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Well, all sin is inexcusable unless we repent, but you're not going to repent of something if you don't
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know it's a sin. And that's where, that's why they, what they're doing is, is infinitely more evil
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than not even just telling us what's right from wrong, but, but actually teaching, uh, 100% error,
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the, the, the, the absolute, the absolute opposite. Of course, when we know what St. Paul said about them
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in, uh, Galatians chapter one, which is let them be a curse, let them be damned. God damns them.
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And he does. We're all afraid to say that. Now it didn't used to be that way. About 50 years ago
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and back, the church was crystal clear and it had to be because the truth is unchanged and unchangeable,
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right? With these cardinals and bishops in Germany and elsewhere, don't get to make up the rules as
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they go, just because they wear a miter. No, no, they're, they have one thing they're supposed to
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preserve and protect the deposit of faith, not make it up as they go, uh, on modern ideologies. No, no.
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It's interesting. The scripture speaks to this when it talks about how, if you, and they're talking
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about prelates, they're talking about priests and bishops. If you tell the sinner their sin,
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their guilt is then on them. But if you don't, their guilt is on you, uh, or their blood, as it
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says, is, is on your hands. Um, and I think those are strong words and, and words that really need to
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be heard. Yeah, the prophet Ezekiel has a whole lot to say about that. I once did a, uh, I think it was
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four and a half, five pages worth of quotes about the duty of the shepherds to, to instruct the sheep
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about what is wrong, what is right, how to live a holy life, how to avoid leading an evil life.
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And scripture is just, well, from beginning to end with that instruction. So the, the great weight
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upon the shepherds is, uh, is what's going to drag them down if they don't do what they're supposed to
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do. And they're not in our day and age. Yeah. They're just not unfortunate for, unfortunately for
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the people, which is why I get, you know, you see me get worked up about things about these shepherds
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is because they're, they're not, not just doing their job. They're being false shepherds. They're
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leading, there's not being non-entities. They're leading people astray with, with absolute false
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to you. You've heard me talk about that, that story of that family that had four kids. I think
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they were all sons and they went to the priest and, and said, you know, is it okay if I, as a dad
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get a vasectomy? And the priest said to them, have you heard me tell this story before? It's a true
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story. It was in my, with my prisoners. The priest said to them, well, quote, you have done your duty
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because you, you had four kids. Therefore it's perfectly okay if dad goes and gets a vasectomy
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so they can't have any more children. So with the blessing of the priest, I know who he is,
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he's still alive. He's still preaching crazy. Uh, but the blessing of this priest, the dad,
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went and got broke. What clearly was working just fine. Right. And later he and his wife,
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and I've been given permission to share this story and the people locally know exactly what
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I'm talking about. Uh, there, the, the husband and wife are sitting around the kitchen table
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later on. They're like looking at each other and they're saying, you know, that just wasn't
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right. I don't care what the priest said. This is, this does not feel right. There's something
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wrong here. And they were so convicted interiorly because they examined their conscience in light
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of what the unchangeable truth into positive faith is. The dad went back and tried to get
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fixed what he had had broken, which, which doesn't always work. You can't always fix that mistake.
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And, uh, so he went back to get it fixed and I had the, the privilege of baptizing numbers eight and
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nine. And then I held number 10 in my hands for a couple hours at a school function. So, and I was
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just there at Christmas time, just the week after Christmas. And there was eight, nine, and 10 running
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all around because there's still little kids and some of the other of the 10 as well were all there.
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But you see that, that priest to this day has not repented of that sin. He's good. And how,
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and you wonder how many other people has he said this to, or how much has his, uh, homilies over the
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decades been colored by this lie have been colored by, uh, what colored by the lie and, and how it is,
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how it has led people astray. Oh, just follow your conscience. No, you follow a well-formed
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conscience. That's the unchanged teaching of the church. You don't just get to follow your own
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conscience because otherwise we've got 7.2 billion people on the planet. We have 7.2 billion
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rights and wrongs, depending on your personal opinion. No, no, no. You have to know your faith
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so that you can live your faith. And well, hopefully we look to shepherds who are teaching us the faith,
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but as you know, as Bishop Callahan said to me, the bishops have failed to teach them for the last 50 years.
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So that's a, that's a perfect example of, of shepherds not teaching truth and not only just
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not teaching the truth, but teaching error, damnable error. I, I, well, you know, cause we've
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talked about it, the Winnipeg statement, how dare those bishops say what they said publicly?
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This is the Canadian bishop statement for those who might not know about it. The Canadian bishops in
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1969, after, uh, Humanae Vitae came out, sort of made an official dissent from Humanae Vitae with a
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statement called the Winnipeg statement, which even to this day actually has not been abrogated.
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Yeah. And is it any wonder the world's falling apart? How we don't know right from wrong, which
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means it, which means when people go to confession, they're not confessing sin. They're not repenting
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of it. And, and here's the thing, you won't get to the end and God will say, well, okay, the priest or
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the bishop didn't tell you because each one of us has a duty and a responsibility that we cannot
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pass off it while the bishop of the priest said, so we, we have a duty to know our, and it's very
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simple. It hasn't, you know, these are simple matters. Um, cause it, it does seem to tend to
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revolve around the sixth commandment. Everybody pretty much realizes you don't go rob a bank at
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gunpoint and you do not steal. Uh, well, 80% of Catholics now don't believe in the third command
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to keep Holy Lord's day. So look how screwed up they are on that. If you don't have to keep Holy
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Lord's day, you don't have much opinion of the Lord. So why should you listen to the other nine
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commandments? Um, which you don't hear priests and bishops saying, you don't show up for church
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on Sunday, not just for yourself, but as a witness of your faith to everybody else that's supposed to
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also be showing up, then you risk, you die. You can hit by a bus during that next week without
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going to confession. You got a problem, right? You don't, you don't hear that anymore. When I was
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growing up, you did, uh, because it was crystal clear because it's not all about you and yourself
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yourself. You're showing up. Have you heard me talk about my aunt Margaret missing church? Have you
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heard me tell that story? Well, I had like a hundred first and second cousins, big, big family.
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And, uh, we'd all go to church and we're all creatures of heaven. So we all sit in the same
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seats all the time. So, you know, who's where, and you'll walk in and sure enough, there, there they
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are. And if somebody wasn't there, you know, Oh, Hey, this person must need some prayer because you,
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you, you better have a good excuse. And usually it's bad health. Why you're not there. Well,
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you know, one day at market isn't there. Well, and market had a brain injury, but that's a good
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reason to not be in church on Sunday, but it better arise to that level or get into church
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because what a witness of faith it was to me to see aunt Margaret up there. And as soon as she could,
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she was back in her seat and to see all my other aunts and uncles, great aunts, great uncles,
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uh, grandma, see them in church. It's a witness of faith to other people. What we do. It's not all
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about me. Like I, I don't just impact me. If I don't go to church, I picked everybody else
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that doesn't show up. How about if a priest doesn't show up? Think about it that way.
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Priest doesn't show up. Well, you start to say, well, priest doesn't think it's important to go
00:24:38.000
to church. I guess I don't have to either. Right. What do we just teach the people for the last two
00:24:42.320
years when churches were closed? Uh, yeah. Sacrament of Eucharist. Isn't that important? Sacrament of
00:24:49.200
Confession. Not that important. Nah, just make a perfect day after contrition. We know that happens.
00:24:54.540
Yeah. Sorry. I got off on a tangent. No, that's fine. So one of the, one of the interesting things is
00:25:00.940
the understanding of, well, let's do perfect, or excuse me, imperfect contrition first. Yes. Okay.
00:25:09.360
This is for the fear of the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Right. Except you don't think
00:25:14.940
people actually get, what is that? When people talk about the loss of heaven, the pains of hell,
00:25:22.080
most people haven't read the, the description that the Fatima children gave of hell.
00:25:29.060
What's a picture of hell? I'm glad you said that, because that's exactly what I was thinking.
00:25:32.420
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So give us, what, what is a picture of hell that, that's, that people can appreciate?
00:25:38.520
Well, I can't say it any better than those children did in their description of what they
00:25:45.780
saw. You know, people today say, well, can't tell children, they're too sensitive. I mean,
00:25:51.620
we're teaching first and second graders about non-binary, like God didn't make male and female,
00:25:57.300
and you can be anything you want to be, but we can't teach them about the agonies of hell.
00:26:02.720
Our Blessed Mother Show, what were they at the time? Eight, nine, and eleven?
00:26:05.620
Seven, seven, I think it was more like seven, eight, and nine.
00:26:09.200
Yeah, there you go. Showed these little children hell, and it showed the demons, which looked very
00:26:16.860
much like demons. It also showed the people burning in the eternal fires, in agony, burning. Just like
00:26:24.500
Jesus said, it's not some crazy picture. Jesus said it, and our Blessed Mother showed it,
00:26:30.960
and many will choose to go there. That's what Jesus said. So you're not Catholic, and you're
00:26:37.960
not Christian if you don't believe what you and I just said. I mean, that's our Lord and our Blessed
00:26:43.140
Mother both teaching us the truth about hell is not a good place to be.
00:26:48.520
Yeah, one of the things I thought was so striking was that Sister Lucy said, had not the angel and
00:26:55.560
Our Lady stayed with them, they would have died of fright.
00:26:58.400
Right, right. That's how, yeah, that's how evil it is. But so you go there, but even something
00:27:04.560
as seemingly insufficient, and this is, people need to understand this, imperfect condition
00:27:12.300
is enough to save you from the fires of hell, because our Lord loves you that much, and His
00:27:17.820
mercy is far greater than your sin. And that's really the whole point of our conversation today.
00:27:23.140
So if I may just speak briefly about the parable of the prod of the Son, because He was all about
00:27:27.940
imperfect condition, right? We know the story. He takes His Father's money, His retirement income,
00:27:35.000
He takes it, which He's not entitled to until that Father dies. He took it early, putting His Father
00:27:39.840
at risk. So that's the fourth commandment. When Jesus was trying to show the infinite love and
00:27:44.400
forgiveness of the Father, He didn't use a murderer, which would be commandment number five. He didn't use
00:27:50.020
a bank thief, like commandment number seven. He threw in a little bit of six because that
00:27:55.320
son was messing around as he shouldn't have been. But ultimately, he was dishonoring the
00:28:01.020
parents. That was the great sinner that made an impact on the Jews that day. Now, the parable
00:28:09.000
didn't use, Jesus changed the parable around. Most people don't understand this. The original
00:28:12.800
parable was like a teaching, like we use the boy who cried wolf to teach, don't lie, because
00:28:18.080
when you lie, bad things happen. So the Jews had this parable of the prod of the Son to
00:28:23.080
show you better not dishonor your parents, which is commandment number four, which, you
00:28:26.840
know, in the grand scheme of the Decalogue, comes before thou shalt not kill. Because I
00:28:30.180
used to think when I was little, killing somebody was a pretty bad thing, and it is. But commandment
00:28:37.080
number four came before number five. What does that tell you about what Almighty God thinks
00:28:40.300
about honoring our Father and our Mother? So anyway, Son goes off dishonoring the Father,
00:28:45.380
and then he squatters all his money, he's poor, he's slopping about with pigs, which you know
00:28:52.380
to the Jews was a really, really bad thing. It made you unclean, which meant you weren't
00:28:55.640
getting in past the gates of heaven, you were going to go to hell. So he says to himself,
00:29:01.380
you know how it goes, I'm hungry. And so I'm going to go back and just be a slave, a worker
00:29:07.860
on my father's farm, because even the slaves, his slaves, still got, you know, food. So he didn't
00:29:13.380
go back because he felt he had offended his Father, which is perfect contrition. He went
00:29:18.840
back for imperfect contrition. He feared the loss of his next meal. That's pretty imperfect,
00:29:25.380
right? So he goes back, right? Now in the Jewish parable, you know, when Jesus, the Father's
00:29:33.180
up there on the porch, right? He sees that sun go down. But he doesn't go get him. He doesn't
00:29:39.380
go run to him. No, the sun has to come all the way to the father, fall on his knees groveling
00:29:44.940
at the father. I sinned against you, sinned against man, and let me just be a slave. In
00:29:49.480
the Jewish parable, which was like our boy who cried wolf, this was the Jewish parable
00:29:53.060
to teach kids, don't dishonor your father. In the Jewish parable, as soon as the son gets
00:29:57.420
through this whole long apology, the father looks at him and says basically, you are dead
00:30:02.380
to me, get off my land, never darken my doorstep again. Well, okay, now watch how Jesus starts
00:30:11.340
to change it. And they immediately got, they started thinking, hey, that's not the way the
00:30:15.780
story goes. The son's starting to come back, right? And the father runs to the son. That
00:30:20.780
was unheard of in Jewish culture because always the lower level guy ran to the baby. You know,
00:30:24.920
when the master says, hey, get me a glass of water, you better run and do it. Then in fact,
00:30:28.700
in order to run, he had to pull up your robe so that you could run without tripping. So
00:30:32.620
here's the father running to the son and the Jews are thinking, that's not the way the
00:30:36.200
story goes. Then the son gets, then he gets to the son, right? And the son starts to try
00:30:41.560
to apologize. And the father cuts him off right away. He's put the ring on his finger, put
00:30:46.480
new shoes on his feet. My son, he was dead, but now he's alive. You see, that's exactly
00:30:54.120
opposite. Remember what the dad said to the Jews or to the son? He said,
00:30:58.620
you're dead to me, right? Jesus flipped it on us, flipped it 180 degrees the other
00:31:03.440
direction. So remember that the elder son comes in and says, hey, I've been faithful
00:31:08.920
to you this whole time. You didn't give me a goat to have fun with my friends. And
00:31:13.760
the father said, you know, everything I have, son, he's yours. Everything. Heaven is
00:31:21.000
yours, son, because that's what I have. But your, your brother was dead. And now he
00:31:28.920
lives. We must celebrate. That is the mercy of God. If you repent, even just for bad,
00:31:37.000
not good reason, not, you know, imperfect contrition. He's still going to celebrate
00:31:42.100
having rejoices more over that one repentant sinner. Jesus said it so many ways, so many
00:31:46.120
times to so many different people in so many different places. Heaven rejoices if we just
00:31:52.880
repent like this prodigal son did. Your, your brother was dead and now he lives. Imagine the,
00:32:00.480
the love, only pure love could do that. Right? It taught the Jews that day, the infinite forgiveness
00:32:11.000
of our father. So long as like every prophet said, like John the Baptist said, like Jesus
00:32:15.780
said, just repent. And it doesn't even have to be for a good reason, but you do, you do still
00:32:22.000
have to say, I'm sorry, which is an acknowledgement that he is God. We are not where the, he's a
00:32:28.060
creator where the created, he commands, we obey. And when we disobey, we must say, I'm sorry.
00:32:34.040
Now, while we're alive, you'll still get that chance, right? Once the minute, the minute you
00:32:39.960
die, all bets are off. That's when the die is cast as the saying goes. And watch how much
00:32:46.800
our father loves us. He showed us how he gave people throughout salvation history, an opportunity
00:32:53.500
to say, I'm sorry, remember, remember in the garden, Adam and Eve had everything. It's a lesson
00:33:00.620
there. Everything wasn't enough. It never will be enough. Everything will never be enough.
00:33:04.900
We're always grasping for more. The one thing we don't have, we can have paradise, but we
00:33:09.820
still want that one thing they didn't have. So that, so what happens? Our father comes down,
00:33:14.480
they go run and hide because they know it's in common and they know they've sinned. Isn't
00:33:19.120
that what we do? We just run and hide instead of going to him and falling on our knees and
00:33:22.920
saying, father, father, forgive me. I have sinned. So, so what does our father do? He sees
00:33:27.220
him. He says, why are you hiding? He didn't say I'm up there watching my monitor and you
00:33:31.740
really disobeyed me. Now here comes punishment. No, no. He asked him a question. Why are you
00:33:37.920
hiding? Well then now look at now Cain and Abel. Cain kills his, Cain kills his brother,
00:33:43.420
right? After our Lord said, Hey, just do the right thing. Do what Abel did. He offered the
00:33:48.640
best that he had. So, um, the, and what God comes down, what does he say? He said, Cain,
00:33:55.000
he didn't say I'm, you murdered your brother, you loser. Now here comes heaven's fury. No,
00:34:00.840
no. He says, Cain, where's your brother? He asked him a question. Gave Cain the opportunity
00:34:05.440
to say, father, forgive me for I've sinned. I just let my anger get the worst of me.
00:34:11.640
And I did something very terrible that I can't reverse. Father, forgive me. He didn't. He said,
00:34:16.480
well, am I my brother's keeper? Wrong thing to say to almighty God, right? Now look at,
00:34:21.300
now go forward. Remember, remember Jesus gave the parable about the King who had, um, the wedding
00:34:27.160
feast and the one guy comes in, right? And he's not wearing the robe, which the King provided to
00:34:31.980
all the wedding guests. And the King goes up to him. What's he say to him? He doesn't say, Hey,
00:34:36.020
you loser, you're not dressed properly. Get out. No, he goes up to him and says, how is it? He says,
00:34:40.580
my friend, how is it that, that you came in not dressed in the wedding garment, which is confession,
00:34:47.520
isn't it? You're dressed. You were washed clean in the blood of the lamb in the confession.
00:34:53.080
And the guy didn't say, Oh, King, I'm so sorry. Forgive me, my Lord.
00:35:01.160
Just let me do it right now. He didn't know he, he stood silent. And so what did, what did the King
00:35:06.060
say? Bind his hands and feet and off into the eternal fires that our blessed mother showed those
00:35:11.140
three little children. And then the final example of this is of getting that chance, that last chance
00:35:15.820
to say, I'm sorry, is in the garden of Gethsemane, right? Here comes Judas with the rabble behind him
00:35:21.300
to arrest Jesus, which Jesus knew was happening. He said so at the last supper, right? And when Judas
00:35:29.200
came, he didn't say, hi, you loser. You're going to have your day here, but wait till tomorrow.
00:35:33.580
Because first of all, you're going to commit suicide. You're going to burn in hell for you.
00:35:36.360
No, Jesus asked him a question. Judas, would you betray me with a kiss? You're that close to me,
00:35:42.780
Judas. You've been with me for three years. You're family to me. Because only family gets to kiss
00:35:47.380
another. You think it's odd if everybody went around kissing everybody? No, you got to be close
00:35:51.540
to the person to kiss him. That makes sense. Would you betray me then, Judas, with a kiss? Because
00:35:56.160
that just shows how close you are to me. Would you betray me? Well, then what did Judas do?
00:36:01.320
Here's what he didn't do. He didn't say, oh, Jesus. I'm so sorry. I made a mistake that I can't,
00:36:12.520
fix right now. But before they arrest you, I want you to know, Jesus, that I'm sorry.
00:36:23.880
I can't make it up to you. There's nothing I can do to fix this. But I am so sorry.
00:36:33.140
If he would have done that, Jesus would have forgiven him on the spot. Because that's what
00:36:38.260
God will do for each one of us. He'll forgive us. We see that in the pride of the son. You don't
00:36:45.560
even have to have a good reason. Fear of having, fear of loss of heaven and the pains of hell is
00:36:50.360
enough. But we have, but to get that mercy, which our Lord longs to give us, you have to repent.
00:36:59.500
Remember Jesus, we just went through it on Palm Sunday. He's standing over top of the hill of
00:37:03.240
Jerusalem. And there's all the places of the passion. He can see where he's going to be and
00:37:08.320
what's going to happen to him when he's in those places. And what does he say? He laments over
00:37:12.680
Jerusalem. He says, oh, you losers. Okay. You're going to have your day. But when I rise, you're toast.
00:37:18.800
What did he say? Oh, it's Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How I've longed to gather you to myself like a
00:37:24.880
mother hand gathers her food under her wings. But, but you would not let me. That's the exact
00:37:32.860
same thing he says to every one of us today. I long. I came knowing what you're going to do to
00:37:38.980
me because I love you. I want to show my infinite mercy to you. Here it is. Just take it. Just say,
00:37:48.320
I'm sorry. Repent. And it's yours. My divine mercy, though your sins be as scarlet.
00:37:56.880
Divine mercy is yours. But, but what he's going to say to everybody is, but you would not,
00:38:03.820
you would not let me give you my mercy. You blocked me. You blocked my mercy by your unrepentance.
00:38:10.220
You, you let your sins stand in the way. And once we die, it's too late. But we got to do it now.
00:38:21.800
But in order to do it, we need to know what it is. And you can't just rely upon the priest and the
00:38:25.760
bishops who have led us astray for 50 years. You better know your faith. I think, Father, that's
00:38:31.580
so powerful, particularly for those of us who have sinned grievously, whether we were involved in the
00:38:40.120
killing of innocents with, uh, with abortion, whether we were unfaithful or, um, you know, got into
00:38:48.820
those many sins of the sixth commandment, whether we dishonored our father and mother, whether we
00:38:54.260
dishonored our Lord, um, frequently and left the sacraments altogether. But if we can come with
00:39:00.800
repentance, no matter what we've done, he's still merciful to us. No matter what, he was going to
00:39:06.200
forgive Judas. The one, the one, probably the least likely person I'd ever want to, say I was him.
00:39:12.040
The least likely person I ever would want to, um, forgive would have been Judas.
00:39:19.200
This great saint of divine mercy, who was asked by our Lord to bring his message of divine mercy
00:39:26.380
to the earth, had an incredible revelation from our Lord on December 17th, 1936. In fact, I'm going to
00:39:35.520
read it to you. Um, this, these were the words of Saint Faustina in her diary on the day of the birth
00:39:47.000
of Jorge Mario Bargoglio, now Pope Francis, December 17th, 1936. Now get this. These are words from her
00:39:56.300
diary. She says, on the day of his birth in 1936, I have offered this day for priests. I have suffered
00:40:04.140
more today than ever before, both interiorly and exteriorly. I did not know it was possible to suffer
00:40:11.420
so much in one day. I tried to make a holy hour. She continues. I'll start that over again. I tried
00:40:21.620
to make a holy hour in the course of which my spirit had a taste of the bitterness of the garden of
00:40:28.540
Gethsemane. That's the garden where Jesus was betrayed by Judas that you just spoke of, Father.
00:40:35.640
I am fighting alone, she says, supported by his arm against all the difficulties that face me
00:40:42.280
like unassailable walls. But I trust in the power of his name and I fear nothing.
00:40:49.740
Father, uh, as we're leaving on this, um, show on divine mercy,
00:40:56.320
there is a lot that you've always said that priests and bishops particularly have to answer for.
00:41:08.540
Pope Francis is one of those people who have misled others in sometimes the most extreme ways.
00:41:17.180
On this day that, uh, Sister Faustina, Saint Faustina writes about, the day of his birth,
00:41:25.340
she describes unbelievable suffering, more than she's ever had, and she suffered. She was a suffering soul.
00:41:32.240
What do you make of that? And, and so here you have a Judas.
00:41:37.600
Does our Lord even extend the possibility of his mercy
00:41:40.320
to a Pope who has betrayed him in so many ways, has betrayed his body, the Church,
00:42:13.260
Now, people like to think, oh, maybe Hitler repented,