Welcome to Become who you Are . Podcast production of the John Paul 2 Renewal Center . I'm Jack Rickager , host . Hey , thanks for joining me today . St Catherine of Siena said that if you become who you are , that you would literally set the world on fire .
And St Athanasius , an early church father and the doctor of the church , said the son of God became man so that we might become God . You know , I beg 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 in 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 . It's good to be with you , and I just got to tell you . Usually I'm with Linda Piper , as you know .
For those of you who have been tuning in every Wednesday for quite a while for over a year now , I believe to unpack John Paul's beautiful theology the body session by session . Man and woman , he created the mythology of the body . So we would be on episode I think probably number 59 , but here's what happened .
Linda has a sister who has been very ill and she's had cancer for a long time , and so she is in hospice right now and not doing very well , and Linda was on her way to visit her , maybe for the last time . So keep Linda's sister in your prayers . So Linda and I usually are recording together , but she can't join me .
So instead of doing that session , I think I'll wait for her and instead of doing nothing , I've been unpacking Love Ed . Love Ed is a program that we launch now , and Love Ed is a program that helps parents and equips parents to talk to their children about life , love and sexuality , and it's facilitated to the John Paul to Renewal Center .
But it's a program that's already been put together . It's got the imprimatur from Bishop Segal out of Indiana , and a friend of ours who's very , very knowledgeable and expert when it comes to these kind of things is Colleen Kelly-Mass .
So she's got a program together and so we're helping to get this out and facilitate it in various parishes and it's so so , so necessary . Isabel Chavez , who's one of the people that are helping me on practice in various parishes , she wrote this .
She said as a young girl growing up , I remember how my parents , first generation immigrants , struggled to form and protect us from sexual immorality . Unfortunately , there were no parenting resources offered at her church to help guide them . Too often this is still true in too many parishes . This is why it gives me great joy knowing that we can offer them love .
And so just a quick note to those of you who are parents or who know parents or are worried about this , and you should be . This is a note for parents . We're here for you . Parenting , as you know , is not easy today .
Both you and your children are bombarded with constant pressures , and it's no secret that our culture has an obsession with sex but doesn't really understand how to live a true and faithful love .
Movies , television , social media , pornography , even the public school system , can expose children in an early age to a twisted perception of God's plan for romance and sexual relationships .
So family life can get complicated and the constant pressure can wear parents down to the point where they feel like they have no choice but to just to go with the flow and give in to the culture and it's hoping that somehow their children are grow up to be healthy adults . But we know that far too often this is not the case .
How many children are suffering and they look to you , parents , for guidance ? Studies show that children and teens desire more time with their families . They seek love , they want limits and discipline , even if they appear to resist .
So Love Ed is designed to help parents have a deeper , more meaningful conversation with their kids that can forge an important relationship between you and your children for a long , long time surrounding the topics of love , life , sexuality , purity .
So Love Ed is a program that we put together to help empower your children with the truth as they enter various stages of development , so that they become the people God wants them to be and to learn to love according to his plan , and you can do this , so help us get the word out here on Love .
Ed , and I just want to give you just in my mind here , as long as I've got a few minutes and Linda's not with us . You know , I'm just thinking about as I'm speaking to parents , I have so many young people coming up and saying you know , who am I ? What's my identity ? Am I an L , a , g , a , b , a , t , a , q , an , a ?
And just goes on and on and on . What's the meaning of purpose of my life ? You know , why were we created male and female ? Because it certainly seems this is subjective . Love is subjective . In fact , love has been reduced to a feeling and then reduced to an act .
They just had a conversation with somebody today so upset you know that they weren't fulfilled in multiple . As a young woman in multiple sexual relationships , thinking that she's going to find love there , it's amazing how twisted and distorted . And so this quote from God in Mespeze . When God is forgotten , however , the creature itself grows unintelligible .
We no longer know who we are , we no longer know what our meaning of purpose is , what our sexuality is . It's amazing how this is all tied together . So I'm going to transition from love just to talk about a a a a instance , an incident that happened not too long ago .
A friend of mine had some visitors staying at his Lake home , including a young woman who was home from college . She's a friend of his daughter , and his daughter later related to him that this girl confided that she had lost her identity . She no longer knew who she was . Jack , he said to me , it's a confusing time for so many young people .
And then he asked me what's that Vatican II expression that you like so much ? And I replied Jeff , it's not that I like that so much , it's just that it , it , it resonates with me right now . When God is forgotten , however , the creature itself grows unintelligible . We no longer know who we are . That's from God in Mespeze and , uh , a Vatican II document .
It's number 36 , if you want to look that up , isn't that true ? It's amazing how confused a human being can get . But just look around at the world spinning out of control and circling this drain , kind of going down into the sewer .
In so many ways , god has been systematically taken out of our country , out of our culture , out of our marriages , out of our families and out of our own individual human hearts . So if , if it is true , if God was forgotten , would we not expect a creature human beings then to grow unintelligible ? If that statement was right , well , that's what we've done .
What would happen ? We would lose our identity , we'd no longer know who we are , we no longer live with meaning and purpose , our sexuality would get twisted and distorted instead of being a sign of spousal love , of this gift to one another We'd be grasping and taking . Isn't that what we see in the world today ?
And it should actually bring great hope and a deepening of faith to those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ , the way , the truth and the life . And why should that bring us hope ? Why is that ? Well , think about it . Let's go back to that statement . When God has forgotten , However , the creature itself grows unintelligible .
By our faith , we come to know that we are created in love , by love and for love and the image and likeness of God . The Amago day . The Amago day , we live out the two great commandments than Jesus said right , opening ourselves up to God , we're filled with the divine life and love . And then we turn .
We become a divine life and love in the world to ever , to our neighbor . But in a special time our sexuality was created to be the Amago day , where the two become one , become three . This little sign , the sacramental sign , the spousal love , right .
So we live out the two great commandments , we open ourselves to God and then we turn and we bring that love into the world and into our relationships . That's who we are then . That's our identity , sons and daughters of God , and our meaning and purposes to give ourselves away as a sincere gift of self to others .
But you cannot give what you don't have , and that's what's happening to the world today . So we start to grasp . We're empty inside and we're trying to fill ourselves with this infinite desires that we have when we're trying to fill ourselves in a finite world , when it's always supposed to be open to God .
If you want to know what that image looks like , just look up at a crucifix and see Jesus hanging there . This is my body , this is my blood given for you . Pouring himself out in the spousal relationship is a bridegroom to his bride Right , jesus Christ , who climbs the marriage bed of the cross to give us life away to his bride right .
And who's the bride ? We all are . Aren't we Pouring out everything ? No greater love is this , he said , than to give up one's life for a friend . This is what we should be doing this self giving love God . Who is this heavenly Father ?
He's concerned for everyone and he has willed that all human beings should constitute one family and treat each other in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood . One family , see for having been created an image of God who , from one man , st Paul said , has created the whole human race and made them all live over all the face of the earth .
He said this in Acts 17 , verse 26 , basically , and a little before and a little after that he said all men and women are called to one and the same goal , namely God himself . Again , it gets back . We're all created and this starts now .
Eternity starts now to open ourselves up to God , to be filled with divine life and love , and then pour this out to the neighbors so we become one body and love , united to the bridegroom , who becomes the head right , the bridegroom who pours himself out to the bride .
Then the bride gathers herself up and receives Christ and pours that back into each other and back into God becoming one Isn't that beautiful right , see ? It's for this reason . Love for God and neighbor , jesus said . That's why this is the first and second great commandment .
Sacred Scripture , however , teaches us the love of God cannot be separated from love of neighbor . You can't love God and not love your neighbor , jesus said . St Paul said if there's any other commandment , it's summed up in the saying Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself . Love , therefore , is the fulfillment of the law .
We read this in Romans 13 and in 1 John , chapter 4 . To men growing daily more dependent on one another and to a world becoming more unified because of flight and internet , etc . This truth becomes even more of a paramount importance . And we could also blow each other up , can't ? We ?
Indeed the Lord Jesus when he prayed to the Father in John 17 , verses 21 and 22, . He said to the Father , right before he's going to be crucified , that they all may be one Father , as we are one . And this statement , john Paul II said , open vistas close to human reason .
For Jesus implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine persons and the unity of God's sons and daughters , and truth and charity . This likeness reveals that mankind , men and women , are the only creatures on earth which God willed for itself , and we cannot fully find ourselves except through a sincere gift of ourselves .
And so , again , if you go back to Genesis , chapter 1 , this image and likeness of God , god , this Trinitarian story , wants us to bring us all into union and community and it creates mankind , men and women , in love , by love and for love , to become one body with Him for all eternity .
And so in Genesis 1 , 26 , 28 again , and now we're going to get to the spousal meaning of the body , so that man and woman can become two , the two men and a woman can become one , physically one , in sexual union , open to life , become three persons and one .
This is a tiny icon , a tiny taste of the Trinitarian story , but in the beginning , before sin , they were filled with divine life and love and this is what they passed to one another In union . Just one family with God was so beautiful . And then , of course , sin came into the world , and we hear that again in Genesis .
Let us make man , god says , in our image , after our likeness . Let him have dominion over all the fish of the sea , the birds of the ear and the cattle , over all the wild animals , all the creatures to crawl on the ground . So then God created man in His image , in the divine image , he created them . How did he do that ?
Male and female , he created them , god blessed them , saying to them be fertile , multiply , fill the earth and subdue it . Now see , this is the problem , now that we see , when God has forgotten , this all unravels because at the end of the day , everything is keyed up on marriage and the family .
All of society , all the great civilizations and civilizations in the world in general , everything comes through the marriage and the family .
When that disintegrates , when we no longer know marriage and the family , then the child that is born or killed in the womb , but if they are born , no longer knows who they are and no longer has a proper education , because the education gets passed down of this proper identity of love . What is love ?
It gets passed down within the family and then they take this out into the world . So marriage and the family has been a bedrock of all civilizations . It's the building block of every civilization throughout history . When marriage and the family is broken apart and distorted and twisted , then society will fall .
Marriage and the family is the heart of the Catholic life , of course , the domestic church , but it's the heart of all our culture , whether you realize it or not . In the church , of course , it's a sacrament , the image of divine life and love itself , but it's also , again , the building block of contemporary society today , but throughout history .
Again , the parents are the ones that love that child . They are the primary caregiver and the primary educator to make sure that they have the proper values and virtues and principles that make them into what , into productive human beings , even to function within what , into this nation .
Then they go out into the world and they become productive in all kinds of locations and bring morality in , and if you don't have it anymore , then we have crooks and politics and people that steal in business and take advantage of people , and we have slave owners .
We have all kinds of things , but this is because of the breakdown in moral values and virtues , isn't it ? Parents are , then , the first heralds of the gospel to children , and their role cannot be overstated and it must be protected .
A healthy culture must put the education of children and welfare of families at its center , for culture must serve the human person with the support of the church . See , all this goes together , these three necessary societies that I've talked about in the past marriage and the family , the church and then all the culture .
That becomes the way we organize yourself in civil and in political , even society , in finance and economics and capitalism . If you take morality out of capitalism , what is it ? We just try to turn employees into slaves , right , and just use and abuse them .
And someone with a moral owner say of a company , he's going to take care of his employees and then his employees take care of him With the dream that maybe someday they'll be business owners , right ? Well , anyways , for the culture to serve the human person and the support of the church , what does the church do ? It adds supernatural grace .
We learn to pray , we receive the sacraments and we're filled again with that divine life and love . And so that can work . Then , to elevate what is human into an appreciation of the transcendental . And what is that ? To learn and to partake and to become all that is true , good and beautiful . Some culture , when you ask why is it coming apart ?
It's been hijacked and debased . It's no longer a culture , a life , because marriage and the families come apart and the church has been weakened , no longer proclaims the gospel . And so if the church no longer proclaims the gospel to the family . The family weakens . When the family weakens and it comes apart , who goes to church anymore ?
No , it takes a family and children to go to church . You know , a culture that no longer seeks what is true , good and beautiful , but one that cancels the truth , the stores what is good , profanes the beautiful . In our so-called modern era , no institution has been severely attacked , as severely attacked as marriage and the family .
These attacks now originate from the very highest political offices in our country and across the world , where the mass murder of the unborn is the law of the land , and sexual grooming and sexual abuse and exploitation of our children takes place in our own public school system and effectively stripping the innocence of children as young as two and three years old .
How will those children then go into the culture ? This is why I love Ed . This is why it's so important that we all stand up . What's the solution ? We all stand up , especially parents and grandparents and people that are concerned about this . Catechists , what can you do ?
We bring love back into the life so young people understand their sexuality , not only the science behind it and the biology behind it , which they need to know that too but this puts together the biology and the science , along with the theology , along with the beauty of this and John Paul said this that it's an illusion to think we can build a true culture of
human life if we do not help the young people to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and into their close interconnection Life , love , our sexuality , this is all connected .
The sexual embrace , the union of a man and a woman , and marriage is the foundation stone of life itself , the family , and in turn this goes out into the culture . The family brings this love not only to the neighbor , but then into the culture and art and music and the work that we do .
And it springs all from this embrace of a man and a woman in a sexual union , which is an icon , again an icon of love , to love as God loves . In short , as sex goes , so go marriage and the family . As marriage and the family goes , there goes civilization , and this is what we see .
We have to build this back up and parents have to step up to the plate to do this . Love ed , the program that we're bringing out , again written by our friend Colleen Kelly Mast , with the imprimatur of Bishop Siegel . This is going to help parents actually bring this down to their children .
The family , which enriches the whole person , john Paul II said , manifest its innermost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self . In love , selfless love , the tribalization when we trivialize our sexuality , this is among the principal factors which have led to the contempt for new life . What happens when a baby comes and you just having casual sex ?
You will think nothing of destroying that child . Only a true love is able to protect love . A protect life , john Paul said . Only a true love is able to protect life . There can be , he said , no avoiding the duty of this divine gift of one to another . Huh , taken responsibility . Especially adolescents need to know this . Young adults need to know this .
Sex is not just sex . Sex is this beautiful , sacramental sign of authentic love , of giving oneself to another person and Joining a new in the community , being open to life and love , a sign of eternal life , eternal love .
An authentic education , then , and sexuality and in love , an Education which involves training and chastity as a virtue , which fosters personal maturity , makes one capable of respecting this bousal meaning of the body is so important , and here Perishes must enter the battle .
And so we're coming up working with parents , but we're working within the parish , because they must enter the battle and they have to boldly declare the gospel . Inspired by no earthly ambition , the church should always seek but one solitary goal .
This is from God in my spes number three , to carry forward the work of Christ under the Lead of the defend they be friending Holy Spirit . And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth , to rescue us and not sit in judgment , but to save us . He came to serve and not to be served .
Human beings have a noble destiny , destiny of brotherhood and sisterhood , communion with the triune God . This destiny comes from Jesus Christ , who is the bridge that gets us there , who , in word and deed witness to the truth of God's merciful love for human beings .
Christ has rescued us who have rebelled against God , and he has done this by laying down his life and taking the humblest place so that we might be reconciled to God and attain the grace full a degrace fulfillment the God always intended for us from the beginning , before the fall .
The church's teachings do not oppose human development , as many Modern thinkers have postulated , but rather the church , knowing the glorious destiny of human beings and following the path of Christ has as her very mission authentic human Development . We have to be able to speak the truth .
We've coming at a time where marriage and the family has been weakened , the church's weekend and of course , we see the attack going out into this socialist , neo-marx's government , even in the United States right now . It's really sad , isn't it ?
So , again , if we take God out and forgot it , forget about him , don't forget that that our founding fathers , john Adams , mad at James Madison what did they say ? That this Republic that they're building , this new United States , america , was only built for a moral and religious people would not stand by any others .
So , again , if we take God out of that , then you lose the morality , you , you , you , you rule , you rules that you lose that essence of being a gift to one another , of loving neighbor and going out and doing good things in the world for others .
Maybe everything that I learned as a child , that I experienced through my life , that made it so beautiful and powerful and real , with the Experience that I felt when my life has changed , was changed when I started to walk with God and and that's what happens , when I learned that as a child and I got away from it for a while .
I knew something was missing and I went on search for that and I realized , looking back , when God was taken out of my own life , I lost my way for a while .
This is true in all of our lives , and so when I go out to speak to people , you , you see that all these Disfunctions right that we see and we get into in this lack of understanding of our own identity and our meaning and purpose , until we walk back into our faith , into a relationship with God , we really don't know who we are . So what ?
That said , if I came into the world and I looked around and right and the world through our Throughout God , but everything was going along perfectly right . So again , if I come into the world , you came into the world , we looked around . It's a world that throughout God , out of our culture , out of our hearts , out of our marriages .
But if we looked around , everything was going perfectly , everybody was happy , everybody was getting along , everybody was joyful , everybody had a true identity , they knew their meaning and purpose in life . There was no confusion and you felt fulfilled , you felt happy , you felt that you found love that was infinite . Well , what would you think ? You think ?
Well , maybe we didn't need God . Maybe my faith is meaningless . Maybe we weren't created by love , in love and for love . Maybe you , maybe we were here by accident . And whatever life is about , it certainly doesn't need to be connected with God , isn't that what we think ? If everything was so good , of course we would , but that's not what we find , is it ?
In fact , the more we've walked away from God , generation after generation , the more dysfunctional , insane , evil , darken consciences , the way we treat each other as objects from throwaway children and abortion , disposable elderly in euthanasia , pornography , children out of wedlock , grooming and sexual abuse and taking away the innocence of our children in schools and other
places , sex trafficking , you know . You can go on and on and on . Add to that the you know , the anxiety , depression , the suicidal thoughts and the antidepressants and the addictions , the opioids .
So , in reality , this crazy , dysfunctional evil that we experience brings me hope that not only as our story true , but that we have , if we have faith in that beautiful love story that's offered to us and we open ourselves to it and we say yes to Jesus Christ and we allow him into our hearts and then we live that out and bring love into the world .
It brings me hope . This is faith that brings hope , that brings love . But when you see a man then on the other side , like Joe Biden , who is just radically pushing abortion , these gender Ideologies on the people of the United States , you go Holy moly . When God is forgotten in somebody's heart , the creature itself grows unintelligible .
Joe Biden calls himself a Catholic , as does Nancy Pelosi , dick Durbin and many others , and I hear Jesus's words . If you continue in my word , you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth , and the truth Will set you free .
Joe Biden and all these fake Catholics , including Father James Martin , who goes around spewing heresy all over the world and is invited into the Vatican by the Pope himself , into the sacred chambers of the Vatican Himself , all they're all crying out loud that their descendants of Abraham , just like the Jews in this story , who said we are descendants of Abraham and
we've never been enslaved to anyone . How is it that you say you will be made free ? They say this to Jesus , right ? And what does Jesus say ? This is John , chapter 8 , about Verses 31 and beyond . And Jesus answered them . Truly , truly . I say to you everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin .
The slave does not continue in the house forever , the son continues forever . So if the son makes you free , you will be free . Indeed , I know that you are descendants of Abraham , yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you . I Speak of what I have seen with my father and you do what you have heard from your father .
Wow , they answered Jesus like this Well , abraham is our father . And Jesus said to them if you are Abraham's children , you would do what Abraham did . But now you seek to kill me , a man who has told you the truth , which I heard from God . This is not what Abraham did . You do the works of your father .
And they said to him we are not born of fornication . We have one father , even God . And Jesus said to him if God were your father , you would love me , for I preceded and came forth from God . I came not of my own accord , but he sent me . Why do you not understand what I'm saying ? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word .
You are of your father , the devil , and your will is to do your father's desires . He was a murderer from the beginning has nothing to do with the truth , because there is no truth in him . When he lies , he speaks according to his own nature , for he is a liar and a father of lies . But because I tell you the truth , you do not believe me .
What if you convict me of sin ? If I tell the truth , why do you not believe me ? He who is of God hears the words of God . The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God . When God has forgotten , however , the creature itself grows unintelligible . Wow , amazing words , huh , john , chapter 8, . It's powerful , powerful , and as is Romans .
You could start right away off , right off the bat , with Romans , chapter 1 , and you can see all of the sin and twisting and distortion going on today .
So what's the solution to all this is to open ourselves up in prayer and the sacraments to our Lord and Savior , jesus Christ , to take him deeply into our body , to spend time with him and then become persons of love and , especially in our marriages and our families , to build the church back up and to stand against those that spew out heresy within the church .
And then we bring this into our culture and into the government , into our jobs , etc . And we live this out . This is the only way . Focus on marriage and the family , no matter if you're single , if you're married or your vocation is religious . Focus on building up marriage and the family .
Invite us in with love , ed , and we'll share and show you how to use that program , because if we don't get parents and kids on the same page with us , we're never going to build up our cultures again , our society again or our church again . Hey , god bless you . Thanks for being with me .
Talk to you soon , everybody , and next Wednesday we should be back in action , I would think with Linda . Bye-bye .