#426 St. John Paul II's Insights on Divine Purpose and Love

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 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 moment .

See , that's the genus of St John Paul II 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 . We are back in . Another week went by , linda . How are you ?

A theology of the body . This is episode or audience number 71 . Thank God for John Paul II , because we live in a fallen world that we can all experience . We all have a sense of this , anybody that's attuned to this , and even if you're not attuned , you have a sense that something's up .

There's a lot of anxiety , a lot of depression , a lot of people on pharmaceuticals , aren't they Linda ?

This is a spiritualized man , meaning man and woman , made in the Amago day and the image and likeness of God , of course , fallen man . We lost that and lust has entered into the human heart .

We see lust all over the place , we see what happened and because time is ticking I think it's very good and unfortunately we're not doing as much today is contemplating what is life ? Who am I ? Where am I going ? What's this all about ? Knowing that death is what's ticking , always closer and closer to us , and death should not be something fearful .

We see so many people fearful about death and I'm not looking forward to it . My Irish grandmother used to say Jack , I'm not afraid of dying , I just don't want to be there when it happens . I kind of feel like that At that point . Peter Craft would call it a cosmic tragedy that we were never supposed to be separated .

This first Adam , where God blew into him body and soul becomes a whole person , and we were never supposed to be separated body and soul . We're a unity of body and soul in the eschaton and we see this Now . this is all part of John Paul's episode here , or audience here . He talks about this .

He talks about Christ as the second Adam who comes on , takes a body and then , in essence , blows this back into us . But we stand at the tree and we have to say yes , now . So now we're free and the beauty of this is that we came into a fallen world , but we don't have to stay there and we still have a choice . But the battle has been won , linda .

The battle has been won . This is what we have to realize . Our lady has already crushed his head . Jesus has already suffered his passion , death and resurrection . We just have to say , yes , we live in a very small window here called our life , and so that's what we're going to be getting into today . John Paul goes to Conf… .

Alludes to St Paul and Corinthians 1.15 . I'm going to read you just a little bit . He really refers to verses 42-49 . I'm just going to read you a verse or two before that .

So this is 1 Corinthians 15-36 , because I just feel this St Paul goes with an exclamation mark you foolish man , what you sow does not come to life unless it dies , and what you sow is not the body which is to be , but a beer kernel , perhaps of wheat or some other grain . What he's telling us is that 1st Adam is just a seed . It's not the end .

It's not where we're going . We're going to take on a glorified body . When Jesus came back , they didn't recognize him . At first . He had this glorified body . They recognized him then as he spoke , as he acted with them , but something had changed . We saw that again even before Jesus died , in the Transfiguration , where he just became white and glowing .

So now we go to 1 Corinthians 15 , verses 42 . So it is with the resurrection of the dead . What is sown is perishable , what is raised is imperishable . It is sown in dishonor . It's raised in glory . It's sown in weakness . It's raised in power . It's sown in physical body . It's raised a spiritual body .

If there is a physical body , there's also a spiritual body . Thus it is written . The first man , adam , became a living soul . The last , adam became a life-giving spirit . But it is not the spiritual which is first , but the physical and then the spiritual . The first man was from the earth , the man of dust . The second man is from heaven .

As was the man of dust , so are those who are of the dust , and as is the man of heaven , so are those who are of heaven . Just as we have borne the image of man of dust , we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven . Do you wanna make a comment on that , linda ?

There's a mouthful there that I think we need to get to before we go any further .

So the glory that is awaiting us is really that we will attain properties that God himself holds , and that's what we have to keep in mind . Yes , we fear death . That's a natural part of our human nature . And yet what awaits us beyond that experience that ? Sorry , grandma , but we're gonna have to be there when it happens .

I don't know what a concept might be of that , but the Pope reminds us that man's destiny is the fullness of the body and soul , nature that we have here as the natural man . And yet along with that fullness that I think everybody will experience , we also keep our own personal subjectivity .

So I'll get to see what the fullness of Linda was meant to be and looks like , and we'll see the fullness of Jack . It's a wonderful idea that each of us maintains that own personal subjectivity of who we are , which is , maybe , jack , something we know deep inside , because we're always right , struggling . Who am I , what is my identity ?

That's a very , very important thing to us . What is my , or who is my personal subjectivity ? You know who am I , what am I about ? And we only discover that as we receive the graces from the redemption to , on this side of the veil .

Develop all those virtues right so that , while we feel really stuck in this entire evilness and this world of lust and vices , we know that the opposite of that would be the virtues and that developing those virtues is more clearly gonna develop who I am and who God meant me to be .

He also comes from the earth . They say , you know , he came from the tomb , right , so he came from the tomb . So we see the empty tomb there and he comes out of this , the second Adam .

What we see in the resurrection it's one of the most powerful things to me is the apostles are hiding in the upper room and for the first time , jesus comes through a closed , locked door and he says peace I'm just paraphrasing , but peace beyond you , right away .

You know he knows they're gonna be anxious , they're gonna be nervous , they already were , but now they see him and he says peace beyond you . Whatever sins you forgive will be forgiven , whatever sins you retain will be retained . And already gives him the power to forgive sins .

But then he does something very cool he breathes on them , he blows on them , he breathes on them , he brings the Spirit back . So we have the Holy Spirit in the very beginning , in Genesis , 2 , 7 , and this Ru'ah . He breathes real life into Adam , making him different than any other , being the first Adam . When Jesus comes back , what does he do ?

He breathes on them . Right , we have the Holy Spirit , this breath going into our blessed mother at the Annunciation and she literally becomes impregnated with God . This is what we're all called to do . When we hear that we die with Christ , we begin that death here on this earth . If we want to rise with Him , we have to start to die here .

What does that mean ? Die to ourselves , our selfishness , all of that that we want to grasp and take , and you see this in live and living color . When you do not do this is no matter . What else Is , if you reject God , you turn into a person of lust , selfishness , lust . You almost implode .

Even if you don't go out and create violence or have a desire to rape people or whatever , you'll have a selfishness that there's an implosion within yourself . It's amazing how we do this . When you mentioned identity and purpose , these are what these poor young people are going through .

You see this all the time in grade school , now high school colleges , you could see what happens when they have no identity and they're grasping and taking .

And my final point here would be what you alluded to already , which is John Paul would say and we all know this , linda , and I want to get your comment on this , because in this noisy world , a full of phones and full of noise , constant noise , we have within us this Ru'a , which is what it's , this capacity for the truth and a desire to seek the truth .

It's a desire to be free and use our free will to choose the good . When we're out of touch with that , when we don't realize what's going on in our hearts , John Paul says here we have the capacity already and the readiness to open ourselves up . We have a desire , don't we , that we know something more . This life is not enough .

There has to be something more . Well , that desire is driving us , pushing us into the life of Christ himself . It wants to connect with God , just as God wants to connect with us .

And so what we're doing is really we're suffocating that breath of God in us by all these courses that we're making and adhering to ideologies that are really suffocating the breath out of us quite literally . And so we find ourselves , as that breath has been suffocated out of us , in that culture of death .

Right , and you said earlier , even though I may not be particularly a person of violence , going out and actively creating a lot of violence , if that breath of life is being suffocated within me , I may find myself more and more becoming angry over things and becoming mini-violent in ways where I'm shouting and screaming .

And yet look at what we're seeing , that , yes , that is coming out in so many more people , that that breath of life being suffocated has enabled this culture of death where we're almost obsessed with death . And it's kind of a strange paradox when we're so fearful of death , our own death , and yet we're so promoting of death in so many ways .

So there's history of , let's call it , the Palestinian people and the Jews , right , and so let's put aside the historical differences there . But let's just focus on the death that you just were talking about , but not just death , not just killing someone like in a war and we know wars have happened .

But this is the barbaric nature of Hamas , of the terrorists , and when you can see the barbaric nature of this , the blood when the Israeli Defense Forces came and took pictures of it . You know there's a film , you can watch this on film . You know when you see this on film . This is disgusting stuff .

You know what they did and that one family just sticks in my mind . They broke in a mother , father and two children , a young boy and a young girl , and they tied them all up in chairs and then they bent the father's head back , tied his head back . And then they gouged out one of his eyes in front of the kids .

And then they went to the mother and they took her clothes off , tied her down and cut off her breasts . And then they went to the young girl sitting there , again tied to a chair , and proceeded to cut off her foot at her ankle While she's sitting in a chair and , as the boy is traumatized by this , they take his hand and cut off his fingers .

And these are living people , right While they're dying , right While they're cut up and suffering . They sat down at these people's breakfast nook and ate breakfast , ate their food , and then killed them .

I mean , and you know , and then our college kids are celebrating this death , while they're so afraid of death that they're looking for safe spaces Remember COVID , give me a safe space . Or when a conservative commentator , someone who's gonna speak on a different side of their ideologies , comes to speak on campus , they protest because they don't feel safe .

They don't feel safe , they're gonna run into a hiding place and the same kind of aimless children will come out . And then what do they do in their protesting ? death , right , and without even knowing what they're doing , but this is the spirit of a person , Again , the spirit of the nature of this , of torture and rape , and you just go .

What has become of this ? Well , we're talking about it right now .

No , in paragraph four here of our audience 771 , the probe says Without any doubt , if in the whole visible world , the cosmos , only this body , which is the human body , carries in itself that potentiality of the resurrection , that is the aspiration and capacity of becoming definitively imperishable , glorious , full of power , spiritual , what he is saying is we have

that ability to become saints . So now contrast that with the behavior you just described . Do you not see the complete antithesis ?

The other thing I think about while we're talking about this is that , you know , the Vatican itself is promoting these ideologies , these divisions and stuff , and we really see this in the Synod of Synodalities , you know , promoting same-sex marriage and all these lusts and different distortions of who we are as human beings .

Again , if we think about marriage , this Ru'ah is that the image and likeness of God is to express God's love in the world , a father and a mother and open to life . Right , this is the Mago Day and this is the inner life of the Trinity , when Satan doesn't have his own clay . And so when he comes into distort this and twist this , what's he going to do ?

Right , he's going to turn our hearts into lust and selfishness into violence .

And also , we see the violence of what they're doing to children in stealing their innocence , because they know that earlier they can get to them and twist and distort them , the earlier that they can indoctrinate them and they all become activists and they get them on these college campuses . This is really division , linda .

This is division and a way to separate us all , a way to bring soul hatred in the world . And Christ would come in the world and he would say hey , just , there's just one commandment , you know love God . Receive that love , that Ru'ah , that spirit , and then be a person of love . Love your neighbor .

And what a contrast , again from Hamas , and I don't know if the rest of the Palestinians . We've all been hurt so much by these wars by living in that area . Are they all full of just hatred for one another ? And the only solution to this , the only way to stop this , if we don't just annihilate each other , is to accept the gospel .

I mean , I don't , you know , there's no other power out there that does this .

And it's to me , everything you described about what's going on can show the depravity that we are capable of when we don't have that love in our hearts which comes from the grace that Christ redemption offered us .

So to kind of tie it back into our audience today , if there are those out there looking at all of that as you've described and say it really looks almost hopeless , one must say no , never .

Because what the Pope is telling us here is that if we understand what we were truly meant for and that fulfillment of who God intended man to be , it is so glorious we can hardly describe it . It would give us the opposite feeling of the description you gave of the behaviors of Hamas .

So for me , as I kind of contemplate all of that and try to make sense out of it , it has become very clear that the only path is that path of dying to self , that selfishness because that's what starts us on that path of all the other depraved behaviors that we're capable of , and so the whole concept of we were made to be self-gift to others and give of

ourselves comes right back to accepting that grace , the sacraments , all the things that we've talked about before , right , jack ?

You know , when we see this pornographic culture that we live in and what they're doing to our young people , even in the schools , and then this hatred from nation to nation , and so love itself is a self-giving Again , if you look at the cross here , this is my body given to you .

Christ came in and showed the apostles that served to wash the feet of the disciples . He got down and he says this is what it means to love . And so the opposite of that , the counter sign , is two things .

Right , it's the hatred and the spewing out that we talked about already , but it's also the twisting and the sorting of the human body to lust , to rape , and you see this in the wars too , but you also see this in the college campuses . How many of those young people are been sold a lie and they're having meaningless sex with one another .

They're using each other's body . How many of those young men are addicted to pornography , and probably many of the women too . So you see this Amago Day , this twisting and distortion , and Satan doesn't have his own place . The opposite of love is not hatred immediately . It's first of its lust , and then it becomes blood lust . And so we see that .

And we see that not only in what they did , hamas did , but we also see that in abortion . So again we have these counter signs . And so I'm looking at Romans 1 , and Paul could have written this yesterday . You know , we lived this story out . This is Romans 1 , verse 16 . And you said you know , where is our hope ?

Well , our hope is in the gospel , of course . Our hope is in our fiat . Our hope is saying yes , I want that spirit within me , I want to take on the second Adam , I want to die with him so I can rise with him . And that starts today . And so St Paul says there's I'm not ashamed of the gospel .

It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith , to the Jew first , then also to the Greek , for it is the righteousness of God is revealed through faith . For faith , as it is written , he who through faith is righteous shall live .

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who , by their wickedness , suppress the truth . And we see this , linda , not only in our secular culture , but it's coming from the Vatican now and twisting and distorting in these ideologies . It's amazing .

They just took out Bishop Strickland and before him many other of the faithful bishops and carnales , why ? And the Synod of Synodalities ? You know , pope Francis himself took over , inviting a certain number , quite a few number , you know . He personally got to invite them and excluded others . And you just say why ?

And Bishop Strickland said it's because I had the audacity basically to speak the catechism out loud , isn't it , nuts , right , right ? So here let me just go on just a little bit more . For what can be known about God as plain to them ?

Because God has shown it to them Ever since the creation of the world , his invisible nature , namely his eternal power and deity , have been clearly perceived into things that have been made . So they are without excuse , for although they knew God , they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him .

But they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened . Claiming to be wise , they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or animals . And you know , this is just so powerful . For this reason , god gave them up to dishonorable passions . The women exchanged natural relations for unnatural .

The men likewise gave up natural relations for women and were consumed with passion for one another . And then , finally , linda , they were all filled with all manner of wickedness , evil , covetness , malice , full of envy , murder , strife , deceit .

They were gossip slanders , hater of God , boastful inventors of evil , disobedient to parents , foolish , faithless , heartless , ruthless . And so you know what is the difference between us now and that time ? There's nothing different about the gospel .

And as I was speaking of the culture of death earlier , it's way beyond just the physical death that we're looking at , you know . So , if our senseless minds are darkened here , what do we see ?

Well , we have the death of innocence , the death of virginity , the death of marriages , the death of relationships , the death of families in divorce , you know , the death of the concepts of maleness and what is a man and femaleness and what is a woman , you know .

So all of those things are dying and have died in various ways as a part of this sin makes you stupid idea and we find ourselves , you know , kind of wallowing in that now .

So , you know , if we decide to stay here , you know Revelation 3 , I believe it was 320 , you know , I wish we were either hot or cold . Jesus said because if you are lukewarm , I will spew you out . And it's because we don't come into a lukewarm time .

Those parents and people that just go along with all these ideologies and , oh , let's just do this kumbaya and just embrace the LBGTQ and terrorist groups and everything else , you don't realize that we were made for more , that we just live in a small time . This is not about hatred , this is actually about the opposite .

These people get caught up in their sins and they become enslaved to their sins and at the end of the day , it's like John , you know , in the first letter of John children , it's the last hour . As you know , you heard the Antichrist is coming . Do not love the world or the things in the world .

If anybody loves the world , love for the Father is not in him , for all that is in the world , the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the pride of life is not of the Father , but is the world .

But and here's the whole point and the world passes away and the lust of it , but he who does the will of God abides forever , for God is love .

Huh , sometimes beautiful things happen in my life . You fall in love , somebody falls in love with you . Right , you get that job . Only you could imagine , you know . But then tragic things happen , and here's the point .

They will happen because death will come , but thank goodness it comes , because can you imagine if these tyrants of the world went on murdering and killing and raping forever ? No , you know , definitive justice comes . But it's not just about justice , it's about bringing love into the world .

In order to bring love into the world , you have to bring love into your own heart . In order to do that , you have to die with Christ and rise with Christ . The Godium of Spes number 22 , is so beautiful and so powerful . It's one of John Paul's favorite quotes anywhere .

He uses it over and over and over again and it says this the truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate word in Jesus Christ does the mystery of man take on light , for Adam the first man was a figure of him who was to come , namely Jesus Christ .

Christ , the final Adam , by revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love , fully reveals man to himself and makes a supreme calling clear . So you know . Here's Jesus again on the cross . What is that supreme calling ? Huh To be filled with divine life and love and to pour this out .

You know , john Paul would say to young people young people , you know that your life has meaning to the extent that it's given away as a gift to others . You want to find yourself , give yourself away . You have to die to yourself and rise again . So what we're talking about , linda , is not impossible here .

In fact , it's not only not possible , it's what we're called to do .

So she had lost herself in that just world of herself . And as to me , thank goodness with John Paul and the help that he has given us , to see that the whole antidote to that is to get out of yourself and give yourself away . And it was really neat to see that she began to work through that and went out and did a little volunteering .

And you know next conversation was she was doing some stuff with preschool kids and you know she came back . I'd never heard her happier , almost giggly , with what a wonderful experience that was . You know , to work with these little preschoolers and it just made it so alive to me .

How , yeah , you know , when you're finding yourself dwelling in that , oh , you know what is life about . Maybe because you just kind of closed your own ego in yourself , right , and that selfishness has kind of taken over and you've got to break through that and get out and give yourself away and it's very doable .

He's reunited the human person with that divine , that Ruan at the beginning . But we don't stop there . It's not enough . He's actually taking us further . That's why St Paul could say and other people , saints through the time , would say well , thank goodness for the fall , because we have this redeemer that's taking us even further .

So our invitation today is not just to die with Christ , but to begin to rise with Christ . Give yourself away and find yourself by suffering for us . He not only provided with us an example for our imitation , he blazed a trail , and if we follow it , life and death are made holy and take on a whole new meaning .

The Christian man and woman , conformed to the likeness of that Son , who is the firstborn of many brothers and sisters , received the first fruits of the Spirit . So this is what we're called to do , and you can try to live another way .

Good luck trying to find this fullness of heart that we're called to do , and it's gonna be a struggle here , we know this in this temporal life , but temporal life gets over very quickly . Become a person of love and , to your example , is the perfect one . That young was a woman , right ? How old was she ?

But then then , then then then of course the battle becomes to stick with that , that every day we have 24 hours and every day we have to say yes to Jesus Christ and then we have to go out and proclaim the gospel to others , because otherwise there's a lot of people , and I think there's no doubt , linda , that all of us are going to be held responsible for

the people that we didn't bring with us . I mean , who was going to proclaim the gospel if we don't ? It's certainly not the Vatican , it's certainly not our infamous shepherd right now that's leading the church seemingly astray in many , many ways .

So we have to pray for our hope , we have to pray for all of those you know , for his conversion , really , and that he proclaims the truth , because you imagine the amount of people that are being mixed up today when the truth isn't shown as a light .

You know , the beauty of Christ's life and death and resurrection and ascension is the heaven , as it brings light and truth into the world and into our hearts . And we have to be very careful that we don't sow disunity , but that we have to proclaim the gospel and we have to show where our own shepherds even have gone wrong .

And we have to be very careful that we don't go wrong and we don't proclaim anything that's not the truth , and that's why it's so good to go back to the sources of these documents and go back to the sources of John Paul's work , because , of course , he's drawing from this positive faith that's come to us through the ages .

Go to confession , receive the Eucharist and then act on it . Become a person of love , and you're going to find out exactly what you need .

And as you try to be a loving person in this world , the hardest people that are going to find are the people all around you your spouses , your relatives , your friends , your neighbors and so that's when you're going to find out that it's not so easy to love .

And then you're going to go back to your knees and you're going to say Jesus , give me the grace , fill me with the Holy Spirit , and you will see , over time you will become that person of love , you will become that person of patience .

Read 1 Corinthians 13 , if you want to get the blueprint for it , and live that out , and you'll see exactly the grace and the power that Jesus Christ has given us right .