# 383 John Paul II's Prophetic Voice: Until the Gospel is Proclaimed, Until Jesus Christ Is the Center of the Human Heart, There Will Be No Peace Within You!

And St Athanasius , an early church father and a doctor of the church , said the son of God became man so that we might become God . You know , I make a while to guess at this , but I bet you , most of us , are a bit disconnected from this divine life that these saints are pointing us to .

Yet St John Paul II said there's an echo of this story , of this divine life that we're created for , inscribed in each human heart , in your human heart . And if you put on a proper lens , if I put on a proper lens , we can get in touch with this echo within us in such a way that we have that aha moment .

See , that's the genus of St John Paul II's theology the body . It connects our lived experience of life to the gospel in such a way that our life takes on a whole new meaning and helps us answer those big questions that our whole culture is so confused about today . Who am I ? What's my purpose ? Why were we created male and female ?

How do I find happiness here on earth ? How do I find love that satisfies forever ? Hey , glad you're with me . I'll be right back for today's episode . I'm excited to be back halfway in Illinois and halfway in Pennsylvania . Linda now lives in one of the the most wanted states for retirement .

I had no idea , linda , that you actually I'm reading the 10 best I sent that to you the 10 best cities for retirement , on people voting for this and what was ? Four out of the top 10 , something like that . Where Pennsylvania ? That was kind of true . Is that why you're there , linda ?

So apparently , from all the parameters , with the cost of living and so on , it's a great place to retire . So we're Elin Town , I think came out number nine and we're just outside of Elin . Town , so I think we're in a good area and I'm the known .

Man and woman , he created them . I mean , you know we can be contentious , right there , right , but we're going to move on past this . This is audience number 57 . For those of you following us in man and woman , he created them . John Paul's incredible work that George Weigel called the time bomb ready to go off .

I think there are people in the church and in the culture , of course , that want to hold this down , but let's make this time bomb go off in our hearts . That was presented on March 18 , 1981 . And what a gift they are .

I just want to go above the trees here a little bit , linda , before we dig in , because we're going to get a little granular , because this is really changing the individual hearts , but before we do .

Catholic social teaching talks about the three necessary societies , which are marriage and the family , the church and then polity , how we organized ourselves in reality and the way we live out this in our culture and our country .

And those three necessary societies are all interrelated and until the gospel is proclaimed , you're going to see a demise in all three of those . We're under attack . Of course , marriage and the family has been brutally under attack for a long time .

Our children are under attack all the way from the womb , and now , with these gender ideologies , the church yourself has got the smoke of Satan within . This is all linked . When we take the gospel out of the culture , we take the gospel out of our own hearts . Marriage and the family comes down .

When we don't have marriage and the family strong and we don't have the temple of the Holy Spirit we're going to be talking about within us , we cannot develop strong marriages and families , and then the country cannot be strong because we take the temple church , out of the country and so we no longer are proclaiming God .

So we're seeing this and this will not go on . Our culture will not be able to survive . Our country really , as it is , won't survive unless the gospel comes back into it , until that bridge of Jesus Christ comes back in . And so , with that said , I think now we can go a little bit deeper and we see how this really works within us .

So I'm appealing a bit to our listeners to say , you know , even if it seems like we've gotten in the weeds sometimes with some pretty heavy details , that it all points to , you know , who are we as children of God and what does that mean about how we live our lives in every aspect and our culture ?

And then they're told that they're in the wrong body and they think they really are . I mean , the cuttering , the anorexia , the gender confusion is amazing , you know . So when you say those things , these are real , real things that are happening here .

And we have to make a decision here , and we make a decision when we don't pass this gospel down to our children , we take out the faith which takes out their hope , which takes out their love and their hearts .

You know the theological virtues , and then we don't live out the cardinal virtues which we're going to be talking about today , which are prudence , which is wisdom , fortitude , which can be thought of as courage , temperance , which is really kind of understanding our sexuality or food or whatever that is , and living it properly is the gifts that are given to us .

And then justice for all of us . And we see all of that being twisted and distorted , and we call this we've been calling this the last few audiences coming from John Paul life in the flesh . Or you stand at the tree and you say yes to God and you have life in the spirit , right ? So that's what we're going to be talking about today .

And you know that image when Jesus came back , you know , and he comes to that upper room , to those disciples after he was risen from the dead and he breathed on them , and one of the things he said before that is peace on you . He brings you that peace that we're all looking for , and then he breathes on them .

He breathes back that Ru'ah , that spirit , and that's what we're going to be talking about today .

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ ?

And this is the kind of top for me where the Pope now says that St Paul shows how the mystery of the redemption of the body achieved by Christ is the source of us , as Christians , having a duty and making a commitment to purity , to that virtue that Paul defines as keeping one's own body with holiness and reverence .

And so that is an idea , jack , that flows throughout the last few audiences that we've been talking about , and I would like people to just hear that phrase and say what does that phrase mean to me ? To keep my own body with holiness and reverence .

Think about a man and a woman when they get married . When I said I do and my wife said she does , we no longer belong to ourselves , we belong to one another . I was in the restaurant business when I was got married and you know I used to close restaurants a lot of times for different managers . I had different things . Sometimes we had entertainment .

We'd be out till three , four o'clock in the morning . You know we didn't . We didn't finish the , we didn't even close up till two , three o'clock in the morning and then we had the . You know we had duties to do afterwards and blah , blah , blah .

So I remember times where I was sitting around with a couple of people after work having a drink at three o'clock or four o'clock in the morning , thinking , holy shisters , I'm married . You know what I mean . You almost , I almost remember that I don't belong to myself anymore . I have no right anymore to stay out all night , you know .

I mean , all of a sudden you go , holy cow . I have a wife at home now , you know . And so I don't really belong to myself . I don't just get in the car and go somewhere with saying something to somebody for two or three days , like I used to , you know . And so when you make these analogies , we do this for love .

We've given up , you know freedom is something for , and so , just like in a marriage , you give up a certain amount of freedom for love and for family . You give up a certain amount of freedom to do to what , to be able to become one with God himself . It's amazing . And then we become temples of the Holy Spirit , we actually become one with God .

This is what we're called to do here , this is what John Paul is getting here . You know you do not belong to your recalculations . So reflect on that link again between you know , saying Paul makes that so clear in Ephesians 5 , right Husbands , love your wives , as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her .

And then that extends out further with the family , when the children you know , one plus one , become three , when the children enter into the family boy , there's no parent on earth that hasn't learned how you have to give of yourself to that newborn baby . And then the children as they continue to come along . And that then even goes further .

That goes out to everyone in our circle of family and friends as we extend out . It reminds me of a talk Bishop Baron , when he was still father Baron , gave a series of talks and one of them was entitled life , it's life is not about you . It's not about you . And it was .

He was really picking up on this idea that that we're here to give ourselves away and we each need to figure out what that means within the particular vocation that we're called to . Now , we're not all called to marriage , although the majority of us are .

So those who are called to , the religious life , the priesthood , the single life are called to this as well , to be self gift .

It just looks a little bit different , but certainly in marriage that is what not only bonds husband and wife but brings each of us closer to God , that the temple within us of the Holy Spirit becomes brighter and brighter as we're able to give ourselves away in service to the other .

Our nation , our whole country , was built on this extension , on Judeo Christian principles , which are the foundation , our marriage in the family , and then the fruit of that , you know , becomes this country .

red light that I am . But I had , I had to do that . You see , we play it out in so many different ways that it's the antithesis of what we're really meant to be and the way we should be living this out .

And he's enticing , of course , with saying , you know , with this student loan forgiveness , right Is that that this is no longer a gift to others .

You know , I want to grasp , I want to take , I want to make sure that that Jack or Linda and the rest of society pays for my education , without any thoughts of we all had to work and suffer for our own and to pay for our kids .

So again , these little things become , you know ways that that a corrupt government then then can use this power , right , because they know we're selfish , we , they know we're all grasping and taking .

These selfish people either have redemption of the body or you're looking right to grasp and to take , so that it's the Holy Spirit himself that enters into the human body as a temple , dwells there and works .

His spiritual gifts and his gifts known to the history of spirituality is the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit , and one of them is piety , what we're talking about today . John Paul mentions , in the early periods , the Greco-Roman period , this generally referred to the veneration of God .

So when you think about piety , you're venerating something , and here you're venerating God and God's wisdom , and then and then allowing that redemption of the body to come in . You know , you cannot become one with God , who is perfect , unless we start to become gifts , because God started .

In fact , there's a confusion today about some bishops that want to take the our father and take the father out . Well , because they don't understand that God is the gift giver . He's not a sexual being . We call God Father because he initiates this gift of love that we're talking about .

A man initiates this gift of love , that God carries the seed and he plants the seed . We are the seeds that God is planting on in this temporal space . A man offers his seed to his wife , who receives that ? So these are images that are very , very important today .

Today , we've expelled , to your earlier point , the Holy Spirit , to the point where we mutilate our bodies , we destroy life in the womb , we render our children sterile , but then again this selfishness goes out , and we see this in pornography , we see this in child sex trafficking , but we also see this in the corruption of our world elites who are grasping for

money and power and sex . You know . So again , the reason I bring these all up is because these three necessary societies marriage and the family , god himself , the church and the way we organize ourselves is all tied up together .

You take one of these links out , especially marriage and the family , you twist and distort that as the cell , the basic building block of everything , you're going to take down humanity itself .

Then , if I'm in the image of God and I Reference God through the gift of piety , then it only makes sense that now my own body should be Reverence as well .

Yes , it is much more temporal , much more physical , then God , the father , who doesn't have a body , but the idea is still there that it translates into that reverences do Myself and every other human being that exists because of being made in the image of God .

So , you know , we talk about that a lot and it seems like it's just this kind of Maybe religious statement floating around out there , but it's very , very real in how we live our lives .

Either I be , I stand at that tree , the knowledge of good and evil , I open myself up to God , which is redemption of the body . He dwells within me .

I , this is a freely given gift and John Paul brings this out , as as as he's following Saint Paul here that this , this gift of purity , is a gift of God and it's and it's connected to wisdom , wisdom , and and it's amazing We'll get to this before we finish here today from Sorak and wisdom literature .

It's amazing how beautiful this is and how they open this up , that this is connected to God . I , you know , our default position without God is sin and death . That's just the obvious Ramifications of this we are . We are sinners who are going to die Again .

You know , we either declare the gospel and we bring this into our own hearts and into our lives , or or we're done . There is no other alternative . And and if you , you know this as Scat , a lot as Scatological vision . It's mentioned in here . You know if you're not aiming to where we're going . You know , you .

You have the small circle that you live in and and look at . Let me take it , for example , this Dick Levine that we talked about last time . Right , he's , he's the assistant director , secretary for the HHS , the health and human services , for our whole country . A man who's so disconnected from this temple of the Holy Spirit that he dresses as a woman .

An Obvious man that dresses like a woman , walks like a , like a man , right , but he thinks he's a . He's a woman . But here's the dangerous part of this even more than that is he's . He is affirming all of these gender ideologies and pushing this down on children . When you do that , you've Extended that evil now to the whole world .

You've gone the opposite way . You've broken down marriage in the family instead of extending that good out into the world . What are we doing ? We're twisting and distorting this and we're telling children , to our earlier point , that you might even be in the wrong body . This is really some very evil things that are going on today .

That will take us back to that echo where we know it's wrong , we know that this is not what we should be doing with our children and that we shouldn't be living this way , and yet there's some sort of delusion that has taken over many people that they have . They seem incapable of Recognizing the evil behind this and I can only attribute it to the evil .

One has so dark in their minds and Cut them off , as you say , as cut flowers from that source of what is truth and what is good and what is beautiful , that they are really , really stuck . And then People who are related to those who are in the depths of that depravity Don't really know what to do with it because they don't want to Cross the person .

And yet there's Confusion sewn at that level as well , and I and I think that what we're trying to talk about here in theology the body can help give some clarity and Unconfused people on to what route they need to take , not only for themselves but for their family and friends .

He asked his reason , which we're all in doubt , with reason that should seek the truth . When you're a reason , no longer seeks the truth anymore . You're living in that small circle . I mentioned that and yourself you take up most of that small circle . That small circle is so small that it becomes really Revolves around you sex and then power , right ?

and nothing else fits in and you really look at . I have no doubt , when I listen to that , that that person talk , that man talk that . That I think he's sincere , you know , I mean .

I think he's sincerely confused , and , and so this is an old story , and if you , if you don't think you need the gospel today , and again , one of my favorite Quotes from Godia Mespas , number 24 or 36 it is when the , when God has forgotten , the creature itself grows unintelligible .

In other words , if I'm not searching for the truth and Purity is something that is , is you know , with somebody like poor Rachel Levine . Look at these two . How about this video clip I don't know if you saw this of these men in India , this mob parading two Christian women . They had stripped them naked . Did you see this ?

And you see this lust of a mob and you see these women and you just go . They no longer see them as people . They they never . They are this disconnected . So when we're talking about this , this is going on all the time , we have the Uighurs in China with the CCP that are harvesting their organs while they're still alive . You know , it's amazing .

And so now I'm gonna read from Sirach . John Paul quotes two places chapter 23 and and , and also 51 , and then wisdom . But but listen to , I'm gonna go just a little bit before . John Paul says but this is an old story right . Lord , father and master of my life , Permit me not to fall by them .

Who will apply the lash to my thoughts , to my mind , the rod of discipline that my failings may not be Spirited , nor the sins of my heart overlooked ? He's saying look it , we , I feel this threefold concupiscence . Become the master of my life , don't let me fall by all these things . He goes on to say less , my failings increase and my sins be multiplied .

See , once we give into this lust , the selfishness is threefold concupiscence .

Once we give into the pride and the conspicuous sense of the eyes and the flesh , your failings increased to the point where you could become like a Joe Biden , who would call himself Catholic and be the most rabid pro-abortion President in the history of our country , also affirming these ideologies .

And then he goes on to say , lest I succumb to my Fals and my enemy , rejoice over me . Lord , father and God of my life abandoned me , not into their control . So you see this . And then verse 6 let not the lustful cravings of the flesh master me , surrender me not to shameless desires .

And so it's amazing , right , for he who keeps it will not be enslaved . See , if we open ourselves . He goes on to say this , and verse 7 and 8 , for he who keeps this right , this openness to the spirit , will not be enslaved Through his lips . Is the sinner ensnared the rail or an arrogant man fall thereby ?

So you have a choice here either be enslaved by these lusts and these passions to the point where we're so dark . It's amazing , isn't ?

That is giving us the gift to be able to , just as your wisdom literature speaks , to , not fall into the lust and all the weaknesses of our that we've inherited through the original sin , the threefold concupiscence .

So , jack , I'm not as deep into theology as you have had the opportunity to study , so I kind of look at this from probably a bit more of a layman's perspective . But it all kind of comes together for me when I understand that Purity is a gift and so it's related to the gift of the Holy Spirit that we identify as piety .

And so , as piety , being sensitive and reverent to God and to my fellow human being , I have this awareness that I have become that temple of the Holy Spirit , and the Pope says that always bears fruit in the deeper experience of the love that has , from the beginning , been inscribed in the human being and Human being , being body and soul .

So it's not just body but it's soul , it's our hearts . And then , through that way of thinking , the Pope ends with stating that Saint Paul Closes one Corinthian six with this exhortation their thought therefore glorify God in your body . How many times have we heard that and have we wonder what ? What does that really mean ?

I think here we're finding out that purity is the glory of the human body before God and the glory of the human body through which our masculinity and femininity are expressed . You see , and we've taken that , and to me it's like taking a beautiful white piece of cloth and throwing mud at it to the point where it just it's total filth .

You know , we've done that with this idea of purity and being the glory glorifying God in our bodies .

When you don't have this and this is the beautiful connection here is that you no longer have wisdom either . You know , it's something you know because you no longer have God . In Surah 51 , this is the flip side of this .

This is the last chapter of Surah , and now the short thing that I'm going to read is now this love affair , now that Surah is having with wisdom , with wisdom , and he says this this is just a small part of this .

You know this 51 chapters , but you can hear the love now that , when you step into this because we think of purity as just this white knuckling , as we just said , right , but it's more than that .

It is a battle , but it's a battle filled with grace , and he says this in verse 18 , I became resolutely devoted to her , the good I persistently strove for , I burned with desire for her never turning back . I became preoccupied with her , never wary of extolling her . My hand opened her gate and I came to know her secrets .

For her I purified my hands in cleanliness . I attained to her . At first acquaintance with her , I gained understanding such that I will never forsake her . My whole being was stirred as I learned about her . Therefore , I have made her my prized possession . Wow See , that could be a husband for a wife . That's God for us . That's who we are seeking .

We're seeking this gift of wisdom that right from God Himself . It's amazing . This is a living temple of the Spirit that lives within us .

And yes , we're seeking wisdom , and our theology of the body , which sounds so off-putting to some people , really is a tool for achieving some of that great wisdom that we need to have in order to negotiate our way through this culture and bring it back towards some semblance of where we need to be as a culture of life versus a culture of death .

Let's see , the Lord never disappoints Jack , because , as we're being told that our bodies are that temple and we need to glorify God in our bodies , it ends with the fruits of the Spirit when we actually live this out .

So , the fruits of the Spirit most of us are familiar with charity , joy , peace , patience , kindness , goodness , generosity , gentleness , faithfulness and listen to these last three modesty , self-control , chastity . You see , so we're bearing the fruit .

When we have accepted that redemption , We've made the connection to the wisdom of God , Then here we are with those beautiful fruits , and if one has those and is living their relationship with their wife and husband and children on and on in charity , joy and peace , patience , all those things . What a wonderful thing . We would have right .

It's giving up our passions and desires , and it's so untrue . We just heard from Sarac that it's a matter of opening your passions and desires to wisdom , to God himself , who undistorts that , untwists it and then fills us with the Holy Spirit , and then again it's his gift in wisdom , in wisdom itself , the book of wisdom . This is wisdom .

Let's see here this is eight versus 21 , and knowing that I could not otherwise possess her wisdom except God gave it , and this too was prudence . So here we have the virtue of prudence to know who's is the gift .

I went to the Lord and I besought him and said with all my heart he's asking for that wisdom , the wisdom to come into my heart to govern our heart with the world , the world in holiness and justice , and to render judgment and integrity of the heart . Give me wisdom .

And getting back to the heart , this is why Jesus can say in the Sermon on the Mount you know about adultery that even adultery in your heart is already a sin . Because God wants to root this out . Jesus is coming to our earlier point here redemption of the body . Well , redemption of the body starts with the heart , doesn't it ? What is redemption of the body ?

It starts with the heart . This is about our passions and desires . This is about getting purity so beautiful .

So we need to , we need to sit for a while with this idea of that appeal to our heart , because that's where it begins and we know famously that quote , I think , was soul's needs in about the line between good and evil goes through every person's heart and if we ask for that wisdom , we'll begin to see more clearly for ourselves where am I , what side of

the line am I on and what do I need to do when I recognize that ?

This is the most practical thing in the world and it's manifested in his letter to Titus , kind of . As we wrap up here , paul starts right away in chapter one .

He says a quick hello to you know , and talks about Titus , and then in chapter one he says and again I'm saying this and keeping light of even these bishops that we hear about in the Synod that have gone off the rail , and the father Martins of the world , you know , who are just heretics John Paul II focuses on just a couple of verses here from Saint Paul

and think about eternity begins now . Right , we're already eternal beings , we have already been called into eternity . This is a very fast you know . Before you and I started to record today we talked about how fast our days and our weeks and our months were going . Right , we're going to be out of here . We better start aiming to where we're going .

We're called to be on a journey and Saint Paul says that we will see God , we will start to have those glimpses of God . That's what we're talking about here today . That's what Sirach and Wisdom are talking about . So he says this in verses 15 and 16 , to the pure , all things are pure , but to the defile that unbelieving nothing is pure .

Their very minds and consciences are defiled . They profess to know God , but deny him by their actions . Doesn't that sum up again ? That sums up everything we just talked about today .

So do I look at things as nothing being pure , mocking everything you know in my language and my thoughts , all those things ? Where do I fall there ?

You see , I can do an examination of myself and begin to understand that I may be greatly defiled , and , of course , we know what to do if I come to that conclusion , jack , I need the sacraments , I need confession and I need to get down on my knees in front of that crucifix , as you remind us many times .

Again , I get , you know , I think about this , rachel Levine , you know , dick Levine , you know , is he just evil ? How did he become like this ? How does he promulgate this on other , on children even ? You know , and you think , wow , you know it , we've become so dark . I don't think they even know it . They don't realize what they're doing .

I don't , I , really I , when I look at someone like that , you can only pray for them . I don't know but , they're . But what the problem is ? We don't say something , we don't stand up and push back against this . And how do you do that ? You proclaim the gospel . You proclaim the gospel because this is is . Is not a man , say me , battling another man ?

This is our Lord and Satan . These are powers , right , that are way bigger than us , way bigger than Dick Levine , way bigger than that mob that that lost their minds and murdered these women and their families . It's , it's sick stuff and this happens all the time . And I can only say , by the grace of God , go I .

You know , I mean how , we know Gk Chester 10 says we all have a little bit of the beast in us . We all have some of this evil . We know this . This is the three-fold concupiscence , original sin blotted .

You know , you know , even baptism takes away that stain of original sin , but it leaves us with this kind of these after effects of the three-fold concupiscence . Only grace Right , our openness , our free will Gets us from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil to choose God .

Please choose the wheat we are , because to be the weeds is not a fun journey . You think it is the given to your selfish desires . But look at that , this function that comes into your own life , not just at this function . You cause other people , a man for a woman , a woman for a man , and the and the child , the children who suffer .

You know these , these are real pains and you'll bring them on yourself . You know there's gonna be a time where Dick Levine is an old person . Who's gonna look back at him ? You know he was married with children . He's married .

We need to ask for those gifts of piety in the Lord . Surely here's our prayers and can Will will answer and then , receiving the gift , then we have that spirit to live fully . What we're being asked to do . It's I don't know it's . It's so simple in some ways to conceive of how it works and yet it's really difficult to do .

I heard it this morning from from somebody that I know leaving mass today a daily Communicon talking about his family and and brings up a 14 year old girl . So his son has three children . The oldest one is 14 , a girl , and she's been cutting herself and Confused about her gender and some different things .

Right , these are real issues , you know , and I said , are they still practicing their faith and and and His son's trying to get back into it . But they got divorced Then no longer living together both are start to drink too much .

And so the point being Just making the point that you just made , that that these ripple effects keep going out , and until we have this purity of heart , and unless we become this temple again , unless we allow God to untwist these things , these things will go out in in our marriages and the family's . Now that that that that family now becomes Disfunctional .

Now are they going to be worried about the ? You know what Pollock ? You know what , what , what policies that that you know a Biden is putting in there ? They don't have time . They don't have time . You know they're gonna let the dysfunction grow and grow and grow .

Do they have time to to read the church documents and know if Pope Francis and some of these bishops are speaking the truth or not ? They don't know , they don't , and yeah so . So these are this is a big deal what we've been talking about .

So you know , if we're all crumpled and and you know whatever image you want to have that we're not functioning very well . We can't be a gift to others . You know . We're just giving them Something that's not very worthwhile , you see .

So , yes , it comes back to us and what's within our own heart , and Jack , is just so beautiful to contemplate what we need to be doing that it makes me want to cry sometimes , to think of how how bad things have gotten . So my appeal is Right , along with your article on why you pray we must pray and we must ask for the gifts of the spirit .