#410 Teachings for an Unbelieving World

Today's podcast came about as I was reflecting on a recent book published in 2019 , based on a newly discovered series of reflections by John Paul II On the famous passage in the book of Acts where the Apostle Paul is speaking to the skeptical Greeks about the unknown God , and each brief teaching in this book , which are a 17 of them , takes us ever deeper into

the mind of John Paul II and the power as he unpacks the mystery of salvation . Well , as fate would have it , as I was about to share my reflections on paper , I was thinking of some different ways an article , a newsletter and some other ways to share this . It was just so beautiful and powerful .

Well as , just as I was about to do this , this is how fate works right On these teachings for an unbelieving world . A text was sent to me by a very accomplished young woman , a captain and a medical doctor in the Air Force , who was actually discharged after reporting sexual abuse .

Including it in her text to me were articles and a study , including one from BMC Women's Health titled this sexual assault . Women's voices on the health impacts of not being believed by the police . So I'll be using these ideas , but first I want to step back .

I want to step back to this idea of the mystery of salvation that John Paul II was first getting to here in these teachings for an unbelieving world . For this of course has ramifications for our eternal lives , for each one of us . So buckle up and get ready for today's episode .

Before I get going here , just a quick reminder the financially supportive , if you can , obviously keep us in your prayers . Prayer is just so powerful .

But we launched a new program I really call it more of a mission to help parents really get these values and still these values of marriage and the family , of our sexuality and why it's created , into their children at fairly early ages , certainly before the world gets to them huh and twists and distorts their hearts .

So anything you can do for us is appreciated . You know the mystery of salvation is an interest , of course , or should be , to each human being . In fact it's intertwined with the dash we call our life right .

The dash you'll remember is the time or the life that you have been given between these two important dates that are going to be listed on your tombstone the day you were born , the day you were put to rest and again intertwined with your dash , your life is how you're working out your own salvation . St Paul states this in Philippians 212 .

I use the New Testament Bible . The one I use is the Ignatius Study Bible . I just love it . It's the second edition RSV , and in this section that St Paul begins to write this in Philippians 212 , the section is titled Shining Lights in the World . We are to be those shining lights in the world .

Where does this light we radiate from out into the world come from ? From the actions of Jesus Christ , our fiat . Our yes to Him , then , is in this accepting His paschal mystery , his passion , death , resurrection , his ascension into heaven . And I say yes to that , and the grace that I receive becomes participation in the life of God within me , within you .

And then we go out . Huh , then we go out . So St Paul says this in Philippians 212 .

Therefore , my beloved , as you have always obeyed , so now , not only as in my presence , but much more in my absence , work out your own salvation with fear and trembling , for God is at work in you , both to will and then to work for His good pleasure , work out your salvation . What does that mean ?

Well , may continue efforts at living the gospel , pursuing your heavenly reward , here again , is that two-part action plan of the gospel at work in human hearts . Number one our fiat , our yes to Jesus Christ . That initial work that we say yes to is the work of Jesus Christ . And then we take this power .

You know , jesus didn't come for sin management , he came with power to redeem us and then for our salvation . Now we're free . We're free to accept or reject that . But for those of us that say yes to Jesus Christ , look up at Him and say , yes , I want that redemption , I want that grace . Now we're on a path to salvation .

In order to gain that salvation , we have to . Number two live it out . We have to live out that grace , that light that shines within us . We have to make that light visible in this created world . This is that grace that Jesus has poured out to us on the cross . So the action of Jesus Christ in our own lives .

Well , st Paul spells this out in Ephesians , in chapter 2 . It's amazing , all of Ephesians is amazing . All of the St Paul in the gospel is amazing .

But in Ephesians he starts out and he says you and you , he says , have been made alive when you were dead , through the trespasses and sins and what you once walked following the course of this world , following the prince of the power of the ear , the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience . This is a tragic picture of man without God .

Jesus took us back and said in the beginning it was not so . So Ephesians 2 is amazing and falls into two halves . It's not that long . The first half explains how Christ reconciles men , all of us , men and women , with God , and then the second part . You know Christ , how he reconciles men and nations with one another .

We go out and we gather everybody in together . Well , today I'm just going to read Ephesians , that first part of Ephesians , and as I'm reading this , think about this , think about the power , huh , and why , you know , so many people ask me why are there so much dysfunction in marriage and the families ? Why is there so much violence on the street ?

Why is there so much corruption among our politicians and among others ? Well , it gets all back to this individual human heart from and you have to move from death our default position . When we come into this world without grace right , we come with original sin and so we are our default position the sin and death .

But here in Ephesians 2 , paul's talking about from moving from death to life with Christ . Think about the power of this . I'm going to read again , just from Ephesians 2 to through Ephesians , ephesians 2 , verse 1 through 10 .

And you he made alive when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you have once walked , following the course of this world , following the Prince of the power of the ear , the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience Among these .

We all once lived in the passions of our flesh , following the desires of body and mind , and so we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind . But God , who is rich in mercy , out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses , made us alive together with Christ .

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places , in Jesus Christ , that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us . In Christ Jesus , for by grace . You have been saved through faith , and this is not your own doing .

It is the gift of God Himself , not because of works , lest any man should boast , for we are His workmanship , created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them . Oh man , this is just so beautiful and so powerful . Let me just unpack a couple of those things . In verse 1 , you were dead .

Spiritual death is the consequence of sin . Many people today don't they live like zombies , bodies without souls , so many like walking corpses . How many children today , our own children , sometimes Children that I know ? I have relatives that never baptized even their children .

How many children today have been thrown out to fend for themselves among wolves , without baptism ? That brings believers from spiritual death to spiritual life . All of us again inherited original sin and have left the fend for ourselves among the powers and principalities , the prince among them being Satan . We don't have the power to do that .

We must have the power of Jesus Christ , the power of grace . What are we seeing around us ? Again ? People without this power . You must have wondered how , for example , out of thousands of examples , I can find every day how these men right in the news in Chicago .

Here , where I come from , can roam the street looking for victims and then literally not just steal an elderly woman's purse when they find her , but attack her , blindsiding these old men , old women , children , whoever , with punches . Just blindside them with these sucker punches right into their faces , totally unnecessary but they don't care .

It's about violence , it's kicking them when they're down , even stomping on them on the way out . Or videos of a student that I just saw yesterday knocking out a teacher in a classroom by throwing a chair at her head from behind .

They become children of the wrath and while they're going to be judged for that , so will those who brought those children into the world and those who should have shared the gospel with them . Where are the pastors ? Where are the parents ? And St Paul says whoa to me if I don't share the gospel . Jesus often spoke up for children , didn't ?

He Uses them as an example of innocence , and today we're allowing these children to be there's innocence , to be stolen and stripped , and they come into what ? Into becoming teenagers and beyond , and they're just looking for victims . Jesus said it's better than a millstone be hung around our necks and be thrown into the sea .

Right , distort or distort or take away the innocence of these children . How many today , of all of us , live without knowledge of God , without his offer of grace ? This is what's happening in the world , and , of course , by those who knew it and rejected it . Well , once we're filled , we have to live it out , we have to share it with these people .

That's why , again , in Philippians 212 , therefore , my beloved , as you have always obeyed , so now , not only in my presence , but much more in my absence , work out your own salvation with fear and troubling , for God is at work in you , both to will and to work for his good pleasure . Work out your own salvation . What does that mean ?

Again , continued efforts right At living the gospel , pursuing your heavenly reward . Our final salvation depends on how we lived out our dash , our life , our personal salvation , and it all starts here , in the individual human heart . It all starts here .

All the violence that you see , all the corruption , all the sin started with just two people , adam and Eve , and everything depends on these individual human hearts . It depends on a lifetime , then , of what ?

Of keeping the faith , a lifetime of following the commandments , persevering in good works , striving for holiness , praying at earnest , fighting against all the forces of evil we see in the world just standing up in the truth and the selfish demands of the flesh which drags us down .

This obligation is so serious that we pursue it , st Paul says , with fear and troubling , with a sense of awe and wonder at being united to and then serving the living God and , on the other hand , the sense of dread at the prospect of turning against Him . Can you imagine ?

This is what so many do today , falling into the hands of evil , and even children , maybe naively at first , but they become the children of the wrath and then grow up to be children of the wrath , and we literally see this exposed all around us .

So I wonder where are these pastors in these churches in the inner cities , those pastors that proclaim are so ready to call out other people ? Where are they calling these individual young people back right To understand how they're created , to bring them back into adoption as children of God ? Where are their parents ?

How many growing up without fathers , even in their home ? Sad and terrifying at the same time . What becomes of a human being without grace ? See this again . When we talk about where are the pastors , where are the parents ? We're looking again at the triangle . Picture this triangle again in front of you . It looks like a pyramid , a two-dimensional pyramid .

At the base of that , marriage in the family , christ and the church here's our pastors that are supposed to be proclaiming the gospel . Where are they Boom out of the picture ? Marriage in the family when are they ? Boom out of the picture ? And so of course , the whole pyramid has no base . It all starts to come down .

So it's a reminder again Our bodies and souls were made up of a body and a soul . But we're born into this world in original sin . We came into a world , a fallen world , the original sin . It's ruled by the powers and the principalities of a fallen world . Why ? Because we have not all said yes to Jesus Christ .

So the default position of a human being , a body and a soul without grace , is what it's ? Sin and death . It's sin and death . That's our default position . We have to proclaim the gospel . We don't live in a neutral world . Does everybody realize that ?

Because I think we have to sit back and remind our neighbors and our friends and our family you were born into a fallen world . You cannot just be neutral . Jesus Christ said if you're lukewarm , I'll spew you out .

Well , not because he's mean and not because he's not full of love and mercy , because he knows that you will become a child of the wrath or have children and send them out to the wolves in sheep's clothing , ready to eat those poor , innocent lambs of ours . How can we do this to them ? It's heartless . Jesus literally came into the world .

That's what theology of the body is all about , theology of the body . Jesus takes on a body and walks through the main door . What is he teaching us ? Who God is , who the Father is , who the Trinity is , and what did he do ? What was his whole mission ? To conquer sin and what happens on that cross .

What's next to the cross we look over and soon we see what the empty tomb he conquered . Death , right . The wages of sin are death . But pastors and parents , they must proclaim the gospel to the children , provide them an essence right , an education in being human . Instead , again , we throw them out like lambs devoured by the children of the wrath .

For only when our body and our soul is infused with this gift that Jesus offers us do we receive this divine life and love within us , called grace , participation in the life of God himself . Then we become a body and a soul infused with grace , then we have the power of Jesus Christ within us to overcome sin and so overcome eternal death .

Well , that's part one . That's part one that I was just unpacking no-transcript . That's part one of what it's . It's the potential for human flourishing . We're not there yet . When does this grace within us become efficacious in this created world ? When does a human being become whole ? When does he become that child of God that we're called to be ?

When he or she acts , when you and I act in the world . We bring this light into the world and we act on it . This is part two , and it's a necessary part two . In union and communion with the power of Jesus Christ within us , we become the light by our actions in the world , by living it out in the ways just Renumerated .

With this in mind , let's get momentarily above the forest huh to view the pig picture once again as a refresher from past Podcasts , and review what I just quickly said about the three necessary Societies that you will remember in that image of the triangle . Do you have that image in front of you ?

Well , again , imagine the bottom of the triangle , at the right corner . That angle , holding up this pyramid is what Christ and the church , god's whole plan , including his plan for salvation , there to be proclaimed .

That grace , that power that holds up all of humanity On the left side of that bottom base of the triangle , that angle is the visible sign of the Trinity , this power , the Amago day , the image and likeness of God in the world , is what marriage in the family , marriage in the family , is not just the basic building block of everything , it's the image of God's

life and love in the world . It's efficacious . It brings new life into the world . Every human being came in Through a male , through a spur , and , and a female through it , through an egg . This is the way we come into the world . Without that , there are no , nobody else . And this is supposed to be a visible sign of trinitarian love in the world .

But what ? What happens in a fallen world ? This gets twisted and distorted and now you're seeing all of our culture and the rest of that pyramid starting to come down , because this base holds everything else up , lose either side and the structure comes down Built upon . This is culture .

So out of of of healthy marriages and the family say and , and a pastor's Proclaiming the gospel , and and this in this efficacious grace of Christ being accepted to us . See , when we proclaim the gospel , we're proclaiming the person of Jesus Christ . It's . It's not the pastor that's bringing me this grace , it's Christ .

But if no one proclaims it to us , how do we know ? Well , this again holds everything else up , lose either side and the structure comes down . Built upon this again , this culture . Only human beings have culture . Plants don't . Plants don't have culture , animals don't have culture . Human beings have culture and culture is made up of many things .

Huh , just think music , art , movies , the books we read , the architecture we see and so much more . When your children walk out of their home and walk to the park , are they safe ? Will they be bullied ? What kind of culture have we helped to create and develop in our own communities , in our schools , in our libraries ? Do we have ?

Are we filled with the love of God ? Are your children taught to love your neighbor as yourself ? All of this will be based upon a proper understanding of marriage and the family , infused with the morals and virtues to flow from a good family to your children that is united in union and communion with Christ , who fills us , who redeems us and saves us .

And eternity doesn't mean tomorrow . Eternity means forever . We are already in your children , and our friends and our neighbors are eternal beings working out their own salvation , see , this is why the education of our children takes on utmost importance .

This is why parents are the primary educators of their children and why , if they're gonna send their children to schools , to the so-called Experts in educating your child , that those experts are doing their job , that the pastors were sending our children to are doing their jobs today . Look at the public school systems , the library systems .

They're all failing at this , especially the public schools . The education of children must include at morals , values , virtues that have already begun to be instilled in the children through their Families and the church long before they enter school and they continue to be instilled in them while children .

While children learn specific Knowledge , then , on top of that that assists them to further understand the world , skills needed in society so they can be productive members and good citizens of the community and the country and good citizens Right of the country in which they live .

This gets us to that third necessary society that's built upon this base of marriage and the family and Christ in the church . Polity how we structure our society , polity is Downstream . You know , the politics , economics , price . It's all downstream from from culture , politics , how we legislate , how we tax people .

Are these honest government people , people who themselves come out of a culture of life the culture of life , or do they , like today , come out of a culture of death ? People who who have no morals , principles , virtues , and then bring this into politics ? And you wonder why Politics is so corrupt in the United States .

Our polity or our form of government , then , is based on what ? On the Constitution of the United States . Can you see why it needs to be attacked by those that are corrupt ? Get rid of that foundation in the third necessary society and boom , and everything is starting to come down already . Now what ? That is our base . Okay , now I set up the base here .

With that as our base , now I come to be go back to that reading for teaching for an unbelieving world .

And again , as I said earlier , as fate would have it , as I was about to share these reflections in writing on teaching for an unbelieving world , this text came to me by this young woman who was a captain , or had been a captain and a medical doctor in the Air Force , but was discharged after reporting sexual abuse .

She sends me a number of articles and studies , including one from Women's Health , bmc Women's Health , called Sexual Assault Women's Voices on the Health Impacts of Not being Believed by the Police . With the articles and reports , she sent her heart breaking .

I have read them many times , I've commented on these many times in my newsletter , in my podcast , in my live presentations , and the pain suffered by women and increasingly by men , who endure sexual assault is very real .

As I stated in my basic presentations on stolen innocence and what's going on to our children and our stealing these innocence , there are 60 million adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse today and this number is going up . One in four women have been sexually assaulted , one in six men .

A stark reminder of a culture that has accepted the lie of the sexual revolution , along with today's Hydra . What is today's Hydra ? The serpent with many heads . Critical gender theory . Another had critical queer theory , critical race theory . All products of what John Paul II would have come to call the culture of death .

At its core , it's a rejection of the truth and what it means to be a human person , and an attack on human dignity itself . We're in a conundrum here , aren't we ? Many drank the Kool-Aid and accepted this culture of lies . We're all too ready to cry victim of sexual abuse , and rightly so we should . But here's my question how many of these ?

And look at I'm speaking in general , because we have to get to the root of this . It's one thing to empathize and have compassion for victims .

Then that elderly woman that I mentioned , that teacher that got hit with a chair , these women that are suffering sexual abuse in a power structure of men , say in a military , that are higher up , or these professors in schools that will take you down and just try to seek to destroy you if you don't give in to their advances .

Yet how many of these women , too , have a hand in this ? I don't know exactly the number yet , but we know many of them do . How many were previously silent to the train wreck plaguing all of humanity until the train wreck came for them ?

They perhaps all of us to a degree failed to take a deep breath and realize that this culture of death did not happen overnight . We are all responsible to some degree for this . The train wreck has been coming for a long time and at least in part , it happened on our watch , on everyone's watch .

When we don't take responsibility for our own failures to stand up for the truth . What happens ? We have victims , we become victims , and the number of victims today is staggering .

Included are these women that I was talking about in this text , sexually abused , and they're not even believed by the authorities , because we've become a culture that has accepted so much of this and there's so many lies around that we see the lies being perpetrated .

How easy is it to take down a man of power now who may be innocent also and we see this all the time right , we saw this with Clarence Thomas when he was , when he was going to in front of Congress to be part of the Supreme Court . Look at how these were just lies . So we have to be careful here , and this is what we've become .

We don't even know who to trust anymore . Again , how many of us today are victims ? Huh , included are women , men , the poor . How many marriages are victims to this ? The disabled , the elderly , the sick , the annihilation of the child in the womb and increasingly , a growing acceptance of grooming children for sexual exploitation .

Where are our parents again , and pastors ? Where are children that grew up in this , in this grooming process , and who look back ? Where are they standing up against it right and protecting the young that are coming up behind them or that have the egg , just drank the Kool-Aid and until the train wreck comes for him , they say nothing .

Look at the public school systems . The teachers unions are in on this . Big tech , government bodies , private institutions have all joined together in an nefarious plan to rob children of their innocence and identity . Have you spoken up for these victims or does the fate of others not interest or concern you , until it comes for you and then you can cry victim ?

John Paul II prophetically saw this train wreck so clearly and when he was asked to pick one scripture passage in disregard the rest , without hesitation , he replied the truth will set you free .

In chapter 4 of teachings for an unbelieving world , it's titled the Human being and Freedom and John Paul starts out this chapter saying this in this catechesis , this teaching , following Apostle Paul in the speech at the Areopagus in ancient Athens . This is coming from Acts , chapter 17 , verses 16 through 34, .

If you want to go back and read that in its entirety , it's definitely worth doing . We will try to develop the themes in the apostolic catechesis of St Paul . He says it's a particular kerygma , kerygma being that initial proclamation of the gospel .

And John Paul is looking for ways to teach in this unbelieving world , and he's following St Paul who does this in Athens . It is there where the Apostle refers to the altar with the inscription to an unknown god that the Athenians included among the places of worship dedicated to the gods of their polyp polytheistic religion .

Speaking of this unknown god , who is one god , creator of all that exists in , lord of heaven and earth , the Apostle develops the anthropological theme , so what it means to be human right , the study of humanity , in parallel with this . So he speaks of the human being as God's offspring . This expression , which he knew , st Paul knows even the pagan poets .

Huh , he's a bright man , he's studied all this . So this expression came from the pagan poets who speak about human beings as God's offspring , and he helps the speaker not only to enter into the biblical truth there , while he's there , about the creation of the human being .

He gives them this opening , created as male and female in the image and likeness of God , which is taken from Genesis , chapter 1 , verse 27 , but at the same time it allows St Paul an opportunity to refer to the revealed mystery of humanity's adoption as children in Christ .

So , with the similarity with God in which human beings participate by nature , and what is that ? What makes us different from all the rest of creation ? We're created a mago day in the image and likeness of God . What is the similarity ? Again , by nature , we have this . What makes us different , again , from all of creation ? Think about that .

It is that every human being , created in the image of God , has what Reason ? We have reason and intellect and we have free will . Rationality and freedom are the two fundamental properties of an individual , the properties of the human spirit . We are reminded of Genesis right when God takes that clay . Go back and just read it to you Genesis 2 , just verse 7 .

So God takes this clay and he breathes into it , ruh-wah , and he instills these properties that are in our nature now , which has become supernatural . Huh , not just biology anymore . And I read this from Genesis the Lord , god formant out of the clay of the ground , just like the animals and the plants and everything else . But then what did he do ?

He blew into his nostrils the breath of life , and so man became a living being with a body and a infused soul from God himself , by means of rationality , a property of the intellect of the individual person , the Creator consigns what the whole of reality , in terms of truth , in terms of good as good , he creates us and sends us into the world .

Read the early chapters of Genesis . This responsibility , this reason that he gave us is to seek the truth . What is the truth of our lives ? Who is the truth ? The truth is a person , jesus Christ . The truth is God himself . And then we have free will , which John Paul said earlier is like a motor . Then , once we know the truth , to choose the good .

Well , we also know from the Gospels that only God is good to choose the good of God . This is inscribed in the nature and constitution of the person , through a will that is free . Freedom , as a characteristic of the person , is directly related to this will .

We are free to do what , free to choose In the human heart all the aspirations , the inclinations , the desires in the heart , defined by the Latin term appetitas , latin for desire , longing , the appetites within us . The will therefore constitutes the appetitas rationalis , so the rational or reasonable desire .

See , once we know the truth of all these desires in our hearts , our aspirations , our inclinations , even our sexual , our passionate desires , eros , we have to know by reason . What is that for ? What is the truth of that ? What's the truth say of our sexuality ?

We get back to this woman who was sexually abused and these articles that I was alluding to earlier . What is the truth of our sexuality ? Well , it's a course to lead us directly into the Amago Day . It's to be able to say , to form marriages and families in the world . That's the truth of our sexuality .

How many women do we hear today that demand the right to abortion and the pill ? The demand , the right to have sex without any consequences and or without entering into any union with meaning and purpose , just using one another ? This opens the door to men , of course , that are going to come right in and say well , this is great .

No marriages , no families , no , giving one life to another . This is the whole reason , for our sexuality is to enter into a sacrament . John Paul would say to men before you make love to your wife , take your shoes off . You are entering into holy ground to pour out your life to one another , to be open to life .

Our sexuality is about bonding for someone freely , totally faithfully and fruitfully , forever . Fruitfully means open to life , open to babies . That's what our sexuality is about . When it gets twisted and distorted , what happens is that dysfunction comes into marriage and family and that triangle , that necessary society , starts to come down .

Because marriages and families were always to be called to be infused with what ? The other side of that base of that triangle , with Christ and the church . This is how marriages come together and are lived out . Therefore , all of , in fact , you know , I just remember , you know , cicero , the great Roman author and politician . He died 43 years BC before Christ .

Huh , and what did he say ? Let your desires be ruled by reason . See , the ancient Greeks knew this . For all of reality , the whole world of goods available through our senses and through reason has been given and entrusted to the human being from the beginning , even before sin . This we were supposed to go and keep until the garden .

Subdue the world , huh , use it and develop it in this intimate relationship , in a relationship with the truth . What is the truth of things ? Thanks to this relationship , the human will is truly free . If we're searching for the truth , the human being , as an image of God , is capable of self-determination . Go back and read Genesis one .

I'm not going to take the time to do it right now , just verses 26-28 , and how God draws back into himself and creates us in the Amago day . Well , the foundation of this power lies within our own humanity , this reason and this free will . Well , what's the beginning ? What did Cicero say ? Let your desires be ruled by reason . This is self-control .

Mastery of the self is the first expression of freedom as self-determination . If I don't have mastery over myself , I become a child of the wrath . By my own agency , right , my own actions , by virtue of my freedom and all of men and women , we all become good or bad as individuals .

First , good or bad in a moral sense , and this confirms the relationship of freedom to the truth . In order to act and choose the good , I have to know what the truth is . My reason has to be sustained and my reason we find out later on has to be united to the one who brings this truth into us , who is the way , the truth and the life .

More , it confirms the organic dependence of freedom , then , on this truth . If we lose the truth , we are no longer free . We become enslaved to our passions and our desires . We get back to this article I was sent . We start to use and abuse one another . The opposite of love is not hate .

The opposite of love is using and abusing another person , seeing them as an object to use instead of a person to love . Anyways , this constitutes the freedom Based on the truth , like I said , the truth of our sexuality . What does that mean ? We have to know and then we have to live that out .

This constitutes the very dynamic core of my personal being , that which is created in Mago Day in the image and likeness of God . This dependence on the truth does not undermine our freedom . On the contrary , it defines it and liberates our freedom . Christ's words on the truth that sets us free . This is from John 8.32 .

The human person , created as an individual , is responsible for his own actions . Think about all these people crying victims . I hear congressmen now it's amazing Pastors . No , we're not responsible for our actions . It's because our ancestors were slaves that we have to act like this . No , no , no . Even as a slave . You read Exodus . The Israelites were slaves .

God frees them from slavery , but this is also an analogy . He doesn't free them just from slavery to the Egyptians . He frees them from slavery to sin . The first liberation is always liberation of the individual human heart . It's a liberation from sin and so from eternal death . Choose the good , thank you .

We become evil when I choose the good by acting in this way , responsible for my own actions . Listen to this . John Paul said this in a book he wrote called Person and Community . He said I myself become the good that I choose . I am good as a human being . The moral value reaches the very depth of my antique structure , as St Thomas Aquinas would call it .

St Thomas Aquinas would call it suppositum humanum , which he didn't even make up . He got this from the ancient Greeks . What is that suppositum humanum ? A human being is a natural substance , this clay that I mentioned earlier , with the raw of a rational nature .

The opposite , then , would be an action not accord with my conscience , ie sexual assault upon another person , a morally evil action . When I do that evil action , I then become evil . I am evil as a human being and in this sense , the fulfillment of the action leads not to my personal fulfillment but to the unfulfillment of myself .

So , regarding this task , a fundamental fracture happened , isn't it ? It's called original sin . At the level of the entire spiritual cosmos , this has occurred . You wonder , when you look out into the world , why everything is starting to crumble . Because we've given up the Savior , the Redeemer , the one who came into the world to restore us .

Men and women of every age stand , in the sense , before that tree of the knowledge of good and evil , with Adam and Eve , and must decide do we choose God or do we choose evil ? St Augustine of Hippel , right St Augustine of Hippel . He said what the phrase was amor love deuske ed contemptum sue . Amor deuske ed attemptum sue .

It means the love of God to the point of despising self , or standing at the tree . On the other hand , amor sueuske ed contemptum day , love of the self . And this is where we are today . My gosh , just look around , go watch a few TikTok videos . This is love of self to the point of despising God . This is where we are .

Why do we reject God so vehemently today ? Because of the love of self . Huh , so deep is this drama of freedom and the history of the visible and the invisible world . We are in two realms , aren't we ? We're a body and a soul . We make visible .

We make visible through our bodies , right , this embodied soul , but that soul has to be infused by the invisible battle going on between our Lord and Satan . What do we choose ? Let me end here with just some thoughts from chapter five , which is the truth of the resurrection , because I can't just leave you here , right ?

The solution , true liberation , is again freedom from sin and death . While God so . St Paul again at the Areopagus . While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance , he said now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed the day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness .

St Paul at the Athenian Areopagus , speaking to the experts , these so-called experts that we see in the world today . These experts , huh Well , these were experts in Greek poetry and philosophy , st Paul we're talking to , and they were eager to listen , it says in Acts , to something new . Is this not modern man Ever ready to listen to something new ?

Who can forget Barack Obama's slogan Hope and change , hope and change . And everybody just gathered to this hope and change . Why ? Because this hope resides in the human heart . We know we need to repent and change . It's in our human heart . So deep are these desires in the human heart ? Just go back and read the Catechism , number 27 .

It starts with the desire of our heart . So we hear this , but we're not instilled with God's grace . We haven't accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and living this out . But we know we need to repent and change . So when we hear this man-made slogan by Barack Obama and many others of hope and change , what do we do ?

We start to just listen , just like the Greeks , to something new , and without really understanding it . He never said what this hope was about , what the change would bring , another version of the city of man , now building utopia , utopia again . The etymology of the root of that word is nowhere , no place . This is where you're going .

We have this dash and we have to decide what we're gonna do . And so what happens ? Without even explaining anything , these modern ideologues , how many of these famous people and the experts , the lost souls got down on a knee to worship at the foot of Barack Obama ? Continue to do so today .

So here , what we're speaking about at the Areopagus or St Paul is something truly new the resurrection of Jesus Christ . At this point , of course , opposition breaks out . And the apostle Paul when he said what ? Why did the opposition ? It's the same thing that happens today . History doesn't often repeat itself , but it certainly rhymes .

Paul said God has fixed the day on which he will have the world judged and righteous by a man whom he has appointed , and of this he has given assurance to all . By what ? By raising him from the dead . Ooh , here's the dividing line . We all stand before the tree , but here what is the new tree ? The new tree is Jesus Christ on the cross .

This is the tree of life . Now , do we choose to accept the man-made mantra , hope and change and create God in our image , the love of self right To the contempt of God . And then we try to create God in our image and our likeness so that we can call evil good and good evil . Modern man wants to be saved in their hearts collectively .

This is socialism , right ? Let's all collectively listen to the tyrants of the world and we get in line and we vote for them . But because we don't wanna do this personally , we'd rather cry victim .

We'd rather be a victim right , intersectionality and all these critical theories or a true victim , like some of these young people that we're talking about , that are really suffering sexual abuse , caught up in these sins . And where are our pastors and our parents and those that should be proclaiming the gospel to them ?

Whoa , he wants to be victim or cry victim today , and these pastors , too , are doing the same thing , without bearing the responsibility that comes from repenting of our own sins and carrying our own crosses , without becoming the good that we're demand of others .

To finish , paul writes for Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom , but we proclaim Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles . But to those who are called , both Jews and Greeks , christ , the power of God and the wisdom of God , for God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than human strength .

That's from 1 Corinthians 1 , verses 22 to 25 . Hey , god bless you . Thanks for being with me . Keep me in your prayers and I'll keep you in mind . Bye , bye , everyone . Now God will give you a straight fix to the tragic bond .