The astonishing revelation recorded in St. Faustina's diary on the day of Pope Francis' birth
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
169.89348
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
00:00:00.000
Welcome to the John Henry Weston Show. I've got an awesome guest today.
00:00:04.080
You know him quite well. Father James Altman has been a lightning rod in the Church.
00:00:09.440
He's really like a John the Baptist sent during these times of darkness to show where the light
00:00:15.480
is. And in light of what we're heading up to, this Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. I know many
00:00:21.060
of you are in the midst of the Novena for Divine Mercy. There are so many aspects of Divine Mercy
00:00:27.420
that are just fascinating that Father's going to get into with us. But I want to focus also on one
00:00:35.440
really unbelievable revelation inside the diary which gave us Divine Mercy, inside St. Faustina's
00:00:44.500
diary. On the day of the birth of Pope Francis, of Jorge Maria Bergoglio, December 17, 1936,
00:00:54.440
there was a fascinating diary entry inside St. Faustina's diary, the Saint of Divine Mercy.
00:01:02.500
You're going to want to stay tuned to this episode.
00:01:25.620
It is. During this week, especially when we are so much in need of mercy. Yeah, I couldn't ask it for a
00:01:33.880
better time. Thank you for the privilege. Thank you, Father. If you wouldn't mind, please lead us
00:01:39.200
off in a prayer. I will. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
00:01:46.400
For our prayer, the conversion prayer, Divine Mercy. You expired, Jesus, but the source of life
00:01:52.320
gushed forth, gushed forth for souls. In the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
00:01:59.640
The fount of life, unfathomable divine mercy. Emvelop the whole world, and empty yourself upon us.
00:02:08.780
No blood and water which gushed forth in the heart of Jesus is a fount of mercy for us.
00:02:13.760
I trust in you. I trust in you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
00:02:21.240
Amen. Amen. Well, there we are. Thank you, Father.
00:02:31.220
So tell us, Father, Divine Mercy. What is it all about?
00:02:35.140
Saint Faustina, what's she all about? And let's maybe start there.
00:02:38.660
Okay. Well, in order to have mercy, we need to understand that that's just not Santa Claus
00:02:49.900
coming down from his sleigh with a big bag full of presents wrapped up mercy.
00:02:56.520
Well, here, you need a bigger one than you. That's not what mercy is. That's not how it works.
00:03:03.340
And what Saint Faustina, which came at a time when the world was in chaos, as it still is,
00:03:08.180
is so much in need of mercy. Then, as now, was trying to tell us that in order to have mercy,
00:03:18.660
it doesn't matter how evil you are, no matter what you have done, though your sins be as scarlet.
00:03:27.780
Nevertheless, repent. And for the mercy, that's how it gets to you.
00:03:33.160
That's how it is given to you. First, repentance and mercy.
00:03:35.560
And in fact, every single prophet, you know, you can think of Jonah as a perfect example,
00:03:41.840
wanted to preach, repent, repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent for the sake
00:03:49.640
of your eternal soul. Repent. It was always repent. You know, the first words I had to say,
00:03:54.100
John the Baptist, when he went off preaching was repent. And the first words of Jesus,
00:03:59.080
basically, in his public ministry was, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. That is the
00:04:05.580
first. What does repent mean, Father? Ultimately, it means, and you hear this repentance, what that
00:04:12.960
means in the act of contrition, which is you can have, oh my God, I'm hardly sorry for having offended
00:04:20.900
thee. That's where it starts. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Lord, for having offended thee. And I detest
00:04:28.460
my sins because, because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Of course, that's imperfect
00:04:33.600
contrition, which we'll talk about in the parable of the prodigal son. But most of all, and here comes
00:04:39.120
the most beautiful repentance, but most of all, because they've offended you, my God, we're all good
00:04:43.720
and deserving of all my love. That's perfect contrition. Not many people get there. Not
00:04:49.700
many people really get, we, we all repent because we're afraid of the punishment part. We're afraid of
00:04:56.680
the consequences. I mean, when, in real life, when we have to repent to other human beings, I'm so
00:05:03.700
sorry for having offended you. Sometimes a child will say that to the parent because he knows what's
00:05:10.440
coming. Uh, as adults, we try to say it because we have offended somebody and we don't want the
00:05:16.220
repercussions or we actually genuinely have that sort of a perfect contrition where you've hurt someone
00:05:21.200
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
00:05:30.520
mean it. You know, always sin always seems like a good idea at the time. That's why we do it. Uh, but,
00:05:37.580
but when we're found out when the consequences of our bad behavior, uh, take shape, it doesn't seem
00:05:46.440
like such a good idea. Uh, the, one of the great problems we have in the world is that the consequences
00:05:53.080
of sin aren't immediate. Uh, they're somewhat delayed. And, uh, some of the great saints, doctors
00:06:00.240
of the church have said, listen, one of, one of the things that fools people because they want to be
00:06:05.240
told is the idea that, well, I can sin, nothing happened. Therefore I can sin again, or I can sin
00:06:12.020
then I can repent, but then I can sin again because nothing's really going to happen. Uh, I just did a
00:06:17.100
full clock on these great doctors of the church and how they said, don't get a little presumptuous.
00:06:24.080
That's a sin in and of itself. Don't get a little presumptuous about sinning freely. Uh, because
00:06:30.840
we, oh, first of all, we don't know the day we're going to get called out of this world and which
00:06:34.780
time, if you're just sitting freely, it's too late. Uh, so, uh, that's what repentance is to
00:06:42.560
actually say, all right, uh, I was selfish and I chose to sin and now I'm sorry, whether it's
00:06:51.300
imperfect because I fear the loss of heaven or perfect because I have offended you, my Lord.
00:06:55.900
And we'll get to the, the beauty of perfect contrition, uh, later on in, in our, in our
00:07:01.780
talk here today. So repentance or repentance is first of all, you have to know you've sinned
00:07:07.900
and then to be sorry for it for whatever reason. And, and then actually a firm purpose of amendment,
00:07:15.400
try to adjust your life. Not, okay, I'm sorry, but I'm going to keep doing it. Uh, choosing my
00:07:22.600
favorite vices. We really have to struggle with that daily. And you know, it's a good thing we
00:07:28.320
have that. Otherwise we might get a little big at it. I mean, most dangerous position you're ever in
00:07:32.080
is to say, Oh, I, I have conquered this sin and, and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Oh no,
00:07:39.060
no. You know, if you send in a particular area before you're, uh, it's like scars when you, when
00:07:48.580
you're scarred from a wound. Yeah. You're, you're sort of healed there, but, but it can, that wound
00:07:55.200
can be reopened easier than had it never been wounded in the first place. So never let us get
00:08:00.640
presumptuous or to live too cocky about, I have conquered anything. Uh, because that's, you're just
00:08:08.560
setting yourself up for Satan. You're opening the door for Satan to attack. When you don't realize
00:08:13.280
I better rely on Jesus. I better hold tight to Jesus every single day, better implore him to give
00:08:20.040
me strength this day to get through the challenges or temptations of the day. And they'll come
00:08:24.500
when you're least prepared for it because you haven't continued to prepare for it because you
00:08:30.080
think you've conquered it. That's, that's just dangerous ground. One of those questions, father,
00:08:35.040
I think a lot of people have is, is that firm purpose of amendment. When you go into confession
00:08:41.560
and you're, you know, you're supposed to sort of, I'll never commit the sin again. So help me God.
00:08:49.900
But at the same time, you know, like I've done this a thousand times. I've been to confession a
00:08:55.420
thousand times and, and I'm still doing it. Right. There's every likelihood that I'm going to do it
00:09:01.920
again. I don't want to. Right. Does it still count?
00:09:08.280
Yes. Uh, remember what does it act of contrition? You know, they, they made it off flowery and made
00:09:17.540
it something. It wasn't, we had the perfect act of contrition that the nuns pretty much told us.
00:09:24.080
And it was, I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace, right? Which means we, we're going to need
00:09:32.540
that grace every single day. It's not with the help of thy grace today. And then I'm good to go for the
00:09:37.040
next month. No, no, no. I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace. Um, father crappy, who, uh, he had a
00:09:45.980
brilliant talk once where a woman had come into confession and it's okay to say, this is a general
00:09:52.200
thing. So it's not revealing anything. And, and we, every single priest, I can tell you, every
00:09:57.000
single priest hears it as well. The same line, which is, well, I've done it all. I keep doing
00:10:03.100
the sin father and, and, you know, I, no matter what I keep doing it. So it's that same thing you
00:10:09.360
were just saying in, uh, so father crappy said to her, well, would you like a different set of sins?
00:10:14.740
Because no matter what it is, we will always be confronted with sin in our, our journey toward
00:10:22.660
purification. We will become more and more aware, the closer we get to God of our own imperfections.
00:10:30.200
I used to think, but Pope St. John Paul II used to go to confession once a week. And I thought,
00:10:36.600
what did he possibly, could he possibly have done in his spirituality, in his holiness, in his
00:10:43.420
sacredness, in his depth of love and prayer? What could he possibly have done? But that's what
00:10:49.740
the great saints do. The closer they get to our Lord and his pure love, the more they realize,
00:10:58.000
understand their own weakness and, uh, and a recollection of those things of their whole life
00:11:05.380
that, uh, where they have been weak or where they have failed, where they have fallen short.
00:11:10.380
So, um, every single one of us, and watch, here's a better way to understand it. If you ever think
00:11:21.440
that you're so good that you haven't sinned, that, I don't know a single great saint. Well,
00:11:29.100
I know not one great saint, not one saint has ever said something so foolish as that, because we all
00:11:35.620
have room for improvement until the day we die, in which case we better hope we're supposed to be at
00:11:42.460
that point. Right? So, so I, I try to tell people, it's got, I use that line from father
00:11:48.800
crappy. What would you rather have a different set of sins? Cause you're good. Listen, you're going to
00:11:52.120
get, if you think you've conquered this one, like this is a big one in your life. You think this is
00:11:55.660
it, right? You get done with that one. Let's say through the help of thy grace, our heavenly father's
00:12:00.700
grace, that you do make great strides in overcoming a particular vice, whatever vice it might be,
00:12:07.600
gambling, pornography, um, whatever, uh, eating, uh, uh, drink, alcohol, uh, drug addiction. Uh,
00:12:17.620
well, if you've made great strides in that, okay, fine. But what, what our Lord does in his mercy
00:12:23.920
is show you another area of your life that needs work. Uh, so if, if, if you're still struggling
00:12:34.060
with the one thing, you're always going to be struggling with something. At least now, you know
00:12:37.140
what it is and you know how to work on it with the help of God's grace. So I, uh, what, what really
00:12:44.560
gets me in the compassion, but isn't so much that person that comes in and said, I, I still get angry
00:12:50.640
with my spouse. It's really funny because oftentimes what a priest hears is the sins of the spouse,
00:12:56.580
not the sin of the confessing. I know. I mean, you're not here to tell me what your husband and
00:13:01.480
your wife did. You're supposed to be telling me what you did. Um, and, but, but what, what really
00:13:07.500
is, is galling is, is some people come in after having not been there for six months, a year, a couple
00:13:13.480
of years. And they'll say something like, well, I guess I've lost my patience a few times. And I'm
00:13:19.240
thinking, buddy, I have sinned more since I got up this morning than you have in the last three
00:13:24.260
years. Come on. You have not done a good examination of your conscience. As far as I know, you're
00:13:29.220
not levitating, you know, on the grace of God. So an examination of conscience quickly reveals
00:13:36.720
that we, that we are sinners. So what? That's why Jesus came. Listen, no sin, no need for salvation.
00:13:43.120
No sin, no need for a savior. So, uh, I'm frankly, I'm kind of glad that he came to save
00:13:49.520
us, came to offer us mercy. He doesn't give it to us. He offers it to us. We have to accept
00:13:56.760
it and we accept it through our repentance. Uh, so thanks be to God because I have a keen
00:14:03.240
awareness of, and I often said it and I often need it. I think I'm the worst sinner in this
00:14:08.080
room. Uh, so yeah, when, when people have that struggle with that, that the idea that,
00:14:14.060
um, that they keep doing the same things over and over again, you know, it means you still
00:14:19.380
got work to do. So what? Keep working. I think that answers that question.
00:14:26.440
Absolutely. Father, one of the things that we experienced today is that very many people
00:14:31.460
are assuaged in their sins actually by sometimes priests and bishops and so on in the church
00:14:39.340
who give them a skewed opinion of where the morality of the church is at.
00:14:46.140
The church's stances never change even on hard issues like, uh, contraception, uh, things like
00:14:53.400
that. But some people have been told actually even by priests in confessional sometimes, oh,
00:14:58.840
posh posh, that's nothing. That's olden days stuff right now. That's totally allowed.
00:15:03.600
We've developed, we've learned a lot more. Yeah. Wow. Far as I know, and this is where Jorge
00:15:11.680
Bergoglio got it so wrong again, actual apostasy to say that the 10 commandments are not rigid.
00:15:20.880
They're not cut in stone. They're flexible. They're adjustable to our time and place. No, no,
00:15:25.200
no. We've, that God does not conform to us. We conform to him. And, and one, as, as you know,
00:15:33.160
my own bishop said to me, well, uh, we bishops have failed to teach people right from wrong for
00:15:38.360
the last 50 years. Not only did they not teach us what was right from wrong, they actively taught us
00:15:44.560
what was wrong is right. That's what's going on in Germany and Austria right now with the full approval
00:15:49.880
of the man in the white cassock. There's been no, you know, he's quick to condemn the, the devotion of
00:15:57.640
these nuns here in the United States, but he's letting those, those apostates in Germany and Austria
00:16:06.620
teach absolutely, absolute heresy, leading people into eternal damnation down the broad road to
00:16:15.060
destruction. He's letting that go. So, so not only are they not teaching us what is right and wrong,
00:16:21.560
they're actually teaching us what is wrong is right. And that, that is absolutely inexcusable.
00:16:27.580
Well, all sin is inexcusable unless we repent, but you're not going to repent of something if you don't
00:16:33.840
know it's a sin. And that's where, that's why they, what they're doing is, is infinitely more evil
00:16:39.760
than not even just telling us what's right from wrong, but, but actually teaching, uh, 100% error,
00:16:46.020
the, the, the, the absolute, the absolute opposite. Of course, when we know what St. Paul said about them
00:16:50.800
in, uh, Galatians chapter one, which is let them be a curse, let them be damned. God damns them.
00:16:56.820
And he does. We're all afraid to say that. Now it didn't used to be that way. About 50 years ago
00:17:01.060
and back, the church was crystal clear and it had to be because the truth is unchanged and unchangeable,
00:17:06.900
right? With these cardinals and bishops in Germany and elsewhere, don't get to make up the rules as
00:17:12.260
they go, just because they wear a miter. No, no, they're, they have one thing they're supposed to
00:17:16.140
preserve and protect the deposit of faith, not make it up as they go, uh, on modern ideologies. No, no.
00:17:23.900
It's interesting. The scripture speaks to this when it talks about how, if you, and they're talking
00:17:29.600
about prelates, they're talking about priests and bishops. If you tell the sinner their sin,
00:17:35.920
their guilt is then on them. But if you don't, their guilt is on you, uh, or their blood, as it
00:17:43.740
says, is, is on your hands. Um, and I think those are strong words and, and words that really need to
00:17:50.700
be heard. Yeah, the prophet Ezekiel has a whole lot to say about that. I once did a, uh, I think it was
00:17:55.040
four and a half, five pages worth of quotes about the duty of the shepherds to, to instruct the sheep
00:18:00.420
about what is wrong, what is right, how to live a holy life, how to avoid leading an evil life.
00:18:07.180
And scripture is just, well, from beginning to end with that instruction. So the, the great weight
00:18:13.500
upon the shepherds is, uh, is what's going to drag them down if they don't do what they're supposed to
00:18:19.360
do. And they're not in our day and age. Yeah. They're just not unfortunate for, unfortunately for
00:18:24.200
the people, which is why I get, you know, you see me get worked up about things about these shepherds
00:18:29.580
is because they're, they're not, not just doing their job. They're being false shepherds. They're
00:18:35.180
leading, there's not being non-entities. They're leading people astray with, with absolute false
00:18:40.360
to you. You've heard me talk about that, that story of that family that had four kids. I think
00:18:44.740
they were all sons and they went to the priest and, and said, you know, is it okay if I, as a dad
00:18:50.400
get a vasectomy? And the priest said to them, have you heard me tell this story before? It's a true
00:18:57.360
story. It was in my, with my prisoners. The priest said to them, well, quote, you have done your duty
00:19:02.820
because you, you had four kids. Therefore it's perfectly okay if dad goes and gets a vasectomy
00:19:07.760
so they can't have any more children. So with the blessing of the priest, I know who he is,
00:19:14.620
he's still alive. He's still preaching crazy. Uh, but the blessing of this priest, the dad,
00:19:20.400
went and got broke. What clearly was working just fine. Right. And later he and his wife,
00:19:27.680
and I've been given permission to share this story and the people locally know exactly what
00:19:32.120
I'm talking about. Uh, there, the, the husband and wife are sitting around the kitchen table
00:19:38.060
later on. They're like looking at each other and they're saying, you know, that just wasn't
00:19:42.780
right. I don't care what the priest said. This is, this does not feel right. There's something
00:19:48.040
wrong here. And they were so convicted interiorly because they examined their conscience in light
00:19:55.560
of what the unchangeable truth into positive faith is. The dad went back and tried to get
00:20:00.700
fixed what he had had broken, which, which doesn't always work. You can't always fix that mistake.
00:20:07.920
And, uh, so he went back to get it fixed and I had the, the privilege of baptizing numbers eight and
00:20:15.200
nine. And then I held number 10 in my hands for a couple hours at a school function. So, and I was
00:20:22.300
just there at Christmas time, just the week after Christmas. And there was eight, nine, and 10 running
00:20:26.840
all around because there's still little kids and some of the other of the 10 as well were all there.
00:20:32.320
But you see that, that priest to this day has not repented of that sin. He's good. And how,
00:20:39.340
and you wonder how many other people has he said this to, or how much has his, uh, homilies over the
00:20:47.080
decades been colored by this lie have been colored by, uh, what colored by the lie and, and how it is,
00:20:58.040
how it has led people astray. Oh, just follow your conscience. No, you follow a well-formed
00:21:04.320
conscience. That's the unchanged teaching of the church. You don't just get to follow your own
00:21:07.820
conscience because otherwise we've got 7.2 billion people on the planet. We have 7.2 billion
00:21:12.760
rights and wrongs, depending on your personal opinion. No, no, no. You have to know your faith
00:21:17.400
so that you can live your faith. And well, hopefully we look to shepherds who are teaching us the faith,
00:21:22.820
but as you know, as Bishop Callahan said to me, the bishops have failed to teach them for the last 50 years.
00:21:27.200
So that's a, that's a perfect example of, of shepherds not teaching truth and not only just
00:21:33.280
not teaching the truth, but teaching error, damnable error. I, I, well, you know, cause we've
00:21:39.020
talked about it, the Winnipeg statement, how dare those bishops say what they said publicly?
00:21:43.880
This is the Canadian bishop statement for those who might not know about it. The Canadian bishops in
00:21:48.540
1969, after, uh, Humanae Vitae came out, sort of made an official dissent from Humanae Vitae with a
00:21:56.200
statement called the Winnipeg statement, which even to this day actually has not been abrogated.
00:22:02.780
Yeah. And is it any wonder the world's falling apart? How we don't know right from wrong, which
00:22:07.860
means it, which means when people go to confession, they're not confessing sin. They're not repenting
00:22:12.620
of it. And, and here's the thing, you won't get to the end and God will say, well, okay, the priest or
00:22:19.400
the bishop didn't tell you because each one of us has a duty and a responsibility that we cannot
00:22:24.280
pass off it while the bishop of the priest said, so we, we have a duty to know our, and it's very
00:22:29.880
simple. It hasn't, you know, these are simple matters. Um, cause it, it does seem to tend to
00:22:36.840
revolve around the sixth commandment. Everybody pretty much realizes you don't go rob a bank at
00:22:41.660
gunpoint and you do not steal. Uh, well, 80% of Catholics now don't believe in the third command
00:22:50.100
to keep Holy Lord's day. So look how screwed up they are on that. If you don't have to keep Holy
00:22:55.620
Lord's day, you don't have much opinion of the Lord. So why should you listen to the other nine
00:22:59.640
commandments? Um, which you don't hear priests and bishops saying, you don't show up for church
00:23:04.280
on Sunday, not just for yourself, but as a witness of your faith to everybody else that's supposed to
00:23:09.620
also be showing up, then you risk, you die. You can hit by a bus during that next week without
00:23:15.280
going to confession. You got a problem, right? You don't, you don't hear that anymore. When I was
00:23:20.240
growing up, you did, uh, because it was crystal clear because it's not all about you and yourself
00:23:24.940
yourself. You're showing up. Have you heard me talk about my aunt Margaret missing church? Have you
00:23:30.460
heard me tell that story? Well, I had like a hundred first and second cousins, big, big family.
00:23:36.160
And, uh, we'd all go to church and we're all creatures of heaven. So we all sit in the same
00:23:39.560
seats all the time. So, you know, who's where, and you'll walk in and sure enough, there, there they
00:23:45.040
are. And if somebody wasn't there, you know, Oh, Hey, this person must need some prayer because you,
00:23:52.420
you, you better have a good excuse. And usually it's bad health. Why you're not there. Well,
00:23:58.420
you know, one day at market isn't there. Well, and market had a brain injury, but that's a good
00:24:04.040
reason to not be in church on Sunday, but it better arise to that level or get into church
00:24:09.520
because what a witness of faith it was to me to see aunt Margaret up there. And as soon as she could,
00:24:14.180
she was back in her seat and to see all my other aunts and uncles, great aunts, great uncles,
00:24:19.120
uh, grandma, see them in church. It's a witness of faith to other people. What we do. It's not all
00:24:25.320
about me. Like I, I don't just impact me. If I don't go to church, I picked everybody else
00:24:30.060
that doesn't show up. How about if a priest doesn't show up? Think about it that way.
00:24:34.000
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,