#430 "Men Have Forgotten God"-Alexandr Solzhenitsyn; "But the Redeemer Of Men Has Not Forgotten Them"--John Paul II

I just wish it was warm and we could have snow , but that's not the way it works . Today's episode is Men have Forgotten God , which is a quote from Alexander Schultz and Eatson , and I add to that a quote that Jesus would have said , and he said in many different ways , maybe not exactly like this , but he said the Redeemer has not forgotten men .

The Redeemer has not forgotten men . He's here for us . This is the great story that we're living through . We either accept the fact that God loves us and has come into the world to redeem us , or we don't . We turn our back on him . Well , men have forgotten God . This has happened throughout history , but I don't think it's ever happened to this point .

This is something dramatic is happening because we see men have forgotten God . Actually , in the church , all the way up into the Vatican , we see that marriages and a family are crumbling . We see this in politics . We see this all over the world . This is a crazy time . So I want to step back and put this into the story , and let me start like this .

Let me ask you a question just to kind of get us in the sense of the story that we're going to be talking about today . Did you personally , did you create the universe ? Did you put the stars up in the sky ? Did you separate the land from the sea ? You know , did you write the big story that human beings came into ? No , of course not .

We came into a story and it's a story between good and evil . We reject that in a lot of ways . We come into the story , we think we're going to make all this up , but you get caught up in a bigger story because you don't understand what that larger story is .

Yes , you have to write your story within that story , but within that story you have one big decision to make Do you reject God or do you accept Him ? And that's the story from the very , very beginning . So I want to get into that a little bit .

You know , those people that I know who have experienced a witness , the first hand atrosities and terror of communism when they saw , you know , my grandmother came to this country from Poland between World War I and World War II . John Paul II came up , you know , in Poland when , for instance , the Nazis and the communists came .

So my grandparents , my father , was fought in World War II . He's still alive today . So they know the first hand atrosities , the terror of communism . They understand fully why such evil takes root and how it grows and deceives and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash on the innocent and the faithful .

Godlessness is always the first step toward tyranny and oppression . Well , the great Nobel laureate , the great Russian writer , poet , russian dissident , who spent eight years in the Gulag , which is the Siberian Soviet prison system it was just horrendous . Anybody that could survive eight years , there's almost a miracle . Well , this is Alexander Sholtsonitsyn .

He came to the , to the West . He came to live in the United States for a while because he was . He was exiled from Russia and he gave a series of talks called Warning to the West , one of those in Godliness . He called it the first step to the Gulag .

It was an address he gave when he received the Templeton Prize for progress and religion on May of 1983 . So 83 . So this is going back . What ?

40 years ago now , 40 years ago , 40 , 50 years ago geez , can't do math this morning , but anyways , he explained how the Russian Revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality and a long process of secularism which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs . He rightly concluded men have forgotten God .

That's why all this has happened , he said , and he warned us what's going to go on in the future , he said . He went on with this talk , he said more than half a century ago , when I was still a child , I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that have befallen Russia Men have forgotten God .

That's why all this happened , alexander Schultz .

And Eatzen goes on to say since then I have spent well nine , 50 years working on the history of our revolution and in the process I've read hundreds of books , collected hundreds of personal testimonies and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval .

But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up , killed 60 million of our own people think about that for a second 60 million , he said . I could not put it more accurately than to repeat men have forgotten God . That's why all of this happened .

He said the failings of human consciousness , deprived of its divine dimension , have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century . And he goes on to describe those . You know , when he got out of the gulags , he kind of summarized it like this he he had seen guards that could be kind and just the tear of some of that .

You know the , the , just the evil they came out of them and I think we all see that . You know , we grow up with bullies , even in the world . You wonder , how does somebody become a bully , right ? How does somebody beat up smaller kids ? You know , how does somebody rape women , I mean , etc . Etc . We see this violence in the streets today .

Well , we , after he got out of the gulags , he said this Marxism claims that some groups and classes of people are good and others bad . So the perfect itself , humanity , must isolate and eliminate the bad people . This is what we're seeing today , right , you know , when we , when we censor Christians and conservative voices , right ?

Anybody that believes in the Judeo Christian principles , of babies growing in the womb , of marriage , of what a family looks like , etc . Etc . They're all going to be censored , right , sochenitzen said , came to realize instead that the dividing line and here it is , this sums it up between good and evil lies within every single individual human heart .

If you want to know how to solve the world's problems , you know , look to yourself . This is a battle of the individual human heart . And then we go on and we take political lives , we go out and do whatever in the world , but we live out our hearts in the world , right ? So finally , the end of this quote .

The Marxist position has argued that humanity would be perfected through the inevitable progress of world history . If the dividing line is , though , is within all human hearts , then only limited improvement is possible in this life , and degeneracy is always equally possible .

The Marxist position is to be rejected , it seems , because it overlooks the reality of original sin . It looks overlooks the reality of original sin . So this is what Schultz and Nietzsche takes us into . He's a fascinating read If you ever get time to read the Gulag Akka Pelico .

It's a big read , but it's fascinating , and he smuggled that out and just small pieces of paper and stuff . It was amazing . So . So , anyways , we're going to get into the story . I'm going to tell you a story to start out with when we come back . Craig , somebody that I personally know . So , as I go here , don't forget to support us .

If you can Certainly Get this podcast out , please share it with your friends , and if you could financially support us , we would appreciate it .

We've launched a program called Love Ed to help parents and their children understand basically the story we're telling , only in a little bit different way , so that they're not indoctrinate these poor children right Through all this craziness that's going on in the school system stuff . This is all part of this conversation we're having today when men have forgotten God .

So let's get into the rest of the story . Buckle up and get ready for the rest of today's episode . ["love Ed"] . Craig , in his late 30s , husband or father three boys , shared with me that he was feeling chronically tired .

He was doing his best to provide a life for his three boys that he had never had growing up , but after 16 years of marriage and raising kids and the daily grind of the job , the constant struggle to keep his marriage together , the battle to raise the kids in a world that seemed hell-bent against them , was wearing them down .

His thoughts then drifted back to that day that a previously misdiagnosed breast cancer had taken a life of his mother . At his seventh birthday party , she seemed to be so happy . Not only weeks later , he lay curled up next to her on a hospital bed in their living room as she labored for every breath .

Then a short grasp in the room was eerily silent , and that silence would mark the end of his childhood for all practical purposes . Craig's father was a Vietnam vet and a recovering alcoholic who would begin a long downhill slide that would throw Craig's life and that of his older sisters into a darkness and a chaos that still haunted him today .

As he grew older , it seems that he was always on edge and anxious . His dad spiraled down and couldn't hardly take care of them at all anymore , got on drugs , deep alcohol , started dating another woman and started to date a woman later on , and she was also a drug addict , alcoholic , and so they began to live in a trailer , and even that wasn't .

There was no food in the trailer . I mean , it was an amazing story that he lived , and he was often bitter than an angry . Later on , certainly , his heart was anxious . Life couldn't be trusted . He said Joy was fleeting , love even could be taken away . Jackie confided to me . After all these years , I don't know who I am , I don't know what my purpose is .

I guess I just get up and go to work . What's missing ? I have a wonderful family , healthy kids , yet I'm filled with these fears that won't go away . I won't go away . I can't find any peace . There has to be something more . What am I missing ? Well , I stop here for a second just to give you a little filling on the story .

Craig was taken in by a foster family , a Catholic family , when he was nine years old . They actually got a call that this young guy was going into food dumpsters outside of grocery stores and he was eating there . I didn't have any proper clothes , et cetera .

So , anyways , they took him in , sent him to Catholic school and he had , you know , he stepped into the faith . He knew his faith , but then , as he got a little bit older , he stopped going to Mass , stopped praying and stepped out of the faith . So this is the situation he's in now . So I asked him . I said well , where do you go for wisdom ?

How do you decide ? You know how to act next . You know where's your guidance from . I mean , did you just make this up as you go , you know ? Back to my original thing , craig . Did you create the universe ? You came into a story , we all came into a story and somehow we reject it . We wanna make this up for ourselves , right ? I stopped for a second .

No answer , didn't really say too much , craig . I said where do you think this statement came from ? Why are you so resentful and crestfallen ? If you do well , you can hold up your head , but if not , sin is a demon lurking at the door . His urge , sin , this demon lurking at the door , is toward you , yet you can become its master . That's right .

That's from Genesis , chapter four , verses six and seven . This is soon after the fall , right . It is God , the Father , speaking to Cain after the fall of his parents , adam and Eve . They opened the door to original sin . Despite the sin now present in the world and in his own heart , cain is encouraged by God . Why are you so resentful and crestfallen ?

If you do well , you can hold up your head . God continues . But if not , sin is a demon lurking at the door . His urge is toward you , yet , yet . Yet , cain , craig , jack , all of us , you can be his master . But despite God's encouragement , what happened ? Cain attacked his brother Abel in a jealous fit of rage and killed him .

You know , this is the story that's playing out today . By those that reject God , evil is unleashed in the world . It's amazing what happens . And this comes after the fall . Don't forget in the beginning , right In the beginning , god created us without sin .

Let us make man in our image , after our likeness , and then let him have dominion over all of this , all of this universe . I've given it all to them . And he says God created man in his image and the divine image he created , the male and female , be fertile , multiply , fill the earth , subdue it . This is the image of God , the image of love .

Now , when we reject God , that's the biggest thing , craig Love is taken out of the world , sin replaces it . But we don't live in a neutral zone . See , this is the story , the underlining theme .

Is this not playing out today In Redemptor Hominus , the Redeemer of man , saint John Paul II , first , in Cyclicalus' Pope , he said I took this with me already from Poland . And he says I just wrote it down right In man himself , many elements wrestle , he said , with one another .

Thus , on one hand , as a creature , he experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways . On the other , he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and summoned to a higher life . We have this battle in us . In light of all this , he asked , john Paul asked , what is modern man afraid of ?

What are the signs of our times in this ever-changing , continually-changing and evolving world ? Huh , you said you are anxious , craig , nervous , something's wrong . You know there has to be something more . All of us are sensing that man have forgotten God .

You know , in our ever-increasing knowledge and discovery of the world , especially in the fields of science and technology , do we not sense that while these discoveries bring many benefits , they can also what Be directed against humanity ? The iPhone rings , you know , bringing the world of knowledge and people into our hands . Yet it can deceive and cause great harm .

Look at pornography , cyber-bullying , all the lies that are coming over mass media . And what if the technology does brought facial recognition , things that are used in communist China and other places , and they wanna bring it to the United States and Europe ? It's a big thing in UK . To what ? Keep tracking , control of its own citizens ?

And did digital currency to turn your money on and off . This is a control takeover by evil itself . It's amazing , craig . Watch what's happening . Read the signs of the times . Science that has cured so many diseases can be manipulated to be a weapon against them . Look at what we're experiencing with COVID-19 . This disruption over the years .

This was a weaponized virus , weaponized by man to kill and harm mankind . It was unleashed upon the world and then the people that unleashed this were put in charge of vaccines and healing people and brought an experimental gene serum . It's amazing what happens , right ?

A gene serum , a so-called vaccine , which doesn't prevent an infection , doesn't stop transmission and it's harmed so many people , and yet they keep pushing it and pushing it and making millions on it . It's amazing . And people keep taking it and advertising on it . People have either chosen God and come into the light or they stay in darkness . Craig .

So man , john Paul would say . Man therefore lives in increasing fear . He is afraid of what he produces , not all of it , of course , or even most of it , perhaps , but part of it can , and because it can radically be radically turned against him , john Paul went on .

This gives rise to a question why is it that the power given to man from the beginning right to be dominion , have dominion over all of this by which he was to subdue the earth . Why does it turn against himself , producing an understandable state of disquiet , of anxiousness , of conscious or unconscious fear and of menace .

We feel this which , in various ways , is being communicated to whole of the present day human family and has manifested itself under various aspects . John Paul wrote this in 1978 . What is missing in the story , craig ? Do we not hear the father speaking to Cain ? Why are you so resentful and crestfallen ?

If you do well , you can hold up your head , he continues . But if not , sin is a demon lurking at the door . His urge is toward you , yet yet you can be its master .

You have to accept the Redeemer and before the fall , god again , let the earth bring forth vegetation , every plant , tree , and God saw how good it was and then made us in His image , in the divine image , in the image of love . And then he said go , be fertile , multiply , fill the earth , subdue it .

We're called into a marriage , we're called into a family , we're called into a communion of love , to be a sacramental sign of the communion of love , the Trinity itself , and give it all that we need if we don't grasp and take Right . John Paul goes on .

The development of technology and the development of contemporary civilization , which is marked by the ascendancy of technology , demand what ? As we get more technology , we understand science better . It demands a proportional development of morals and ethics to control that , to understand it , so that this power that's unleashed isn't unleashed for evil .

And that's exactly what we're seeing , because men have forgotten God For the present , this last development seems unfortunately to be always left behind . That we have to judge this . Is nuclear power good or bad ? Well , it depends if you're blowing up a country or you're using it to produce electricity . We have to decide those things right .

And accordingly , john Paul said in spite of the marvel of this progress , in which it is difficult not to see also authentic signs of man's greatness , signs that , in their creative seeds , were revealed to us in the pages of the book of Genesis , as early as where it describes man's creation , this progress cannot fail to give rise to disquiet on many accounts .

The first reason for disquiet concerns the essential and fundamental question Does this progress , which has man for its author and promoter , make human life on earth more human in every aspect of life ? Does it make it more worthy of man ?

There can be no doubt that in various aspects it does , but the question keeps coming back with regard to what is most essential Whether , in the context of this progress that we see around us as man , is he becoming truly better ? Is he going someplace ? Is he building ? Is his heart opening toward God ?

Is he becoming more mature spiritually , more aware of the dignity of what it means to be a human , more responsible , more open to others , especially the neediest and weakest , and ready to give and to aid everybody that he sees around us ? This is what Jesus calls us to do , because this love that we're created in Mago Dei extends out to the human family .

Love God , be filled with divine love and life and then give this out into the world . Craig , this is your identity . You're a son of God himself . Your purpose is to be filled with divine life and love and to bring this into the world , into your family , and extend it out . We see abortion all around us , craig .

We see young people being put on puberty blockers , these gender ideologies , this pornography shown to innocent young children in school . What do we do about that ? Yes , your children are being put into these schools . Do you pay attention to that stuff , right .

The essential meaning of man's creation in the divine image , john Paul wrote , consists in the priority of ethics over technology , in the primacy of persons over things , in the superiority of spirit over matter . He said man cannot relinquish himself of the place in the visible world that belongs to him .

We are to make God's love visible in the world , craig , but to do that you cannot give what you don't have . This is the restlessness we see of the evil around us . It's real . Science and technology is powerful , as they have become , are simply tools in the hands of man . But in the hands of men the battle cry is the same .

God comes in and says why are you so resentful and crestfallen ? If you do well , you can hold up your head , god continues . But if not , sin , it's a demon lurking at his door . His urge is toward you . Yet you can be his master , craig .

If humanity and the shepherds in the church don't speak truth to power , man becomes the slave of things , the slave of economic systems , the slave of production , the slave of products , and you see the violence around us .

You know evil has been unleashed in the world because men have forgotten God and evil men are in control of this world right now and control of mass media , control of so much that goes on in those iPhones , the civilization that's become purely materialistic and consumers . It condemns man to slavery , even at times .

No doubt this occurs contrary to the intentions and the very premises of its pioneers . We are reminded of St John Paul's second reflection on the 20th century . Going back to what Socha Niedsen was talking about , john Paul said it began with the hope of unlimited progress , but in it is the bloodiest century known to history .

Modern man had placed his hopes for a Messiah in his own genius , in science , technology and medicine . But whenever man loses sight of the great mystery this is the great story that we talked about we're created in love , by love and for love and sets his sights only on this world rejects God . Man has forgotten God .

John Paul goes on to say he always meets disappointment in despair . John Paul said the world is not capable of making man happy . It's not capable of saving him from evil in all types and forms illness , epidemics , pandemics , cataclysms , catastrophes and the like . This world , he said , with its riches and its wants , needs to be saved . It needs to be redeemed .

Drake , this is what you're feeling in your heart You're being lukewarm . Let me ask you this Are you praying every day ? No , are you taking the kids to Mass and the sacraments ? No , ever . No , you prayed before dinner , not really . Wow , you know . You've left your children , who I know you love , as lambs , as the sacrificial lambs .

You've thrown them out to the wolves of this age with no protection . What do you think is going to happen ? This is happening to the world . What kind of country are they going to have ? You have been given the freedom to do whatever you want in this world .

Those freedoms are being taken away , and they're taken away from our family because we no longer stand for the truth . We all try to grasp our little bit of this world , try to find our own little happiness , but we forget about the evil in the world . This is not a neutral world . Well , jesus knows this .

Of course , this is the battle between our Lord , the Redeemer of man , and Satan , who wants to destroy us . Jesus said in the book of Revelation , chapter three start about verse 15 . He could be speaking to any of us here . Craig , I know your works . You are neither cold nor hot . Would you be either cold or hot ?

But because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot , I will spew you out of my mouth . For you say I am rich , I am prospered , I need nothing , not knowing that you are richid , wretched , pitiful , poor , blind and naked .

Therefore , I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire that you may be rich , and white garments to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen , and sav to anoint your eyes that you may see those I love , I reprove and chasten . So be zealous and repent . Behold , I stand to the door and knock .

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door , I will come into him and eat with him and he with me . He who conquers . I will grant him to sit with me on my throne . I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne . He who has an ear , let him hear with the Spirit .

The Holy Spirit says to the churches Craig , we came into a battle , my friend . This is a battle between good and evil and we are in the midst of it . Craig , your heart is anxious , it is nervous . Is there something more ? Of course there is something more . Think about this the sin that came into the world , adam and Eve have everything .

They are in an earthly paradise . And yet temptation is strong . It has to be strong , because how else do you turn people away from God ? Where did your heart turn from ? And think about this , that serpent , satan himself , and the demons . They are after our hearts . And what did they say to Eve ? This is what we are up against . We forgot about original sin .

Like Alexander Schultz and Niedsen said , like John Paul said , this is the fall of man , chapter 3 , genesis . But you are not reading this . You are not reading scripture . You are not in the story . You are trying to create your own story . Isn't that what we always do ?

But think about this the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord , god , had made . The serpent asked the woman did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden ? The woman answered the serpent .

Well , we can eat from the tree in the garden , but it is only from the tree in the middle of the garden we shall not eat from . This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . Craig , how do you know how to live that out in your day to day life ? How do you have the strength to live that out without grace , without God , if we rejected God .

And he says , and she said to him God said you may not eat of that tree , or even touch it , lest you die . Well , what is that ? God gave us everything . He said I'll give you all this stuff , the plants , the animals you know . You can eat from all the other trees . It's just that you can't call evil good and good evil .

But the serpent said to the woman no , certainly you will not die . God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God's , who know what is good and what is evil . That's what we all do . We reject God so that we can all call good evil and evil good . So what happens ?

We get into the world just like Cain and we do this half heartedly . And Abel , his brother . His heart is pure and his heart is for God . And so , of course , god accepts Abel's sacrifice and Cain's . He doesn't offer anything . So Cain is mad , he's jealous , but despite that , god loves Cain too and invites him to master temptation by acting rightly .

But what does he do ? Cain kills his brother Abel . Well , cain is a prototype of the perverse and murderous man . Don't we see that around us ? Look at Hamas , the way they attacked the Jews , I mean , you know , plucking their eyes out , cutting their hands off , raping women . What's the difference here ? Abel is the just man who blamelessly suffers violent death .

And I'm not calling the Jews Abel here . I'm just saying what could happen here . You know Cain , right , cain and Abel came from the same stock . Their brothers were all brothers and sisters . Why does one heart turn away and the other one , right ? The other one offers a sacrifice up to God . And here we have this playing out , right here .

You know the man of violence and the man of death , and then the Abel who , again , he's seen in the New Testament as a figure of Christ , whose blood spilled on the cross and speaks more eloquently than the blood of Abel , is Jesus Christ .

But you have come to Jesus , the mediator of a new covenant , and to the spiritual blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel . It says in Hebrews in Hebrews , verses , or chapter 12 , verse 24 . Cain , on the other hand , symbolizes every man who hates his neighbor , for hatred implies desiring that the other person should not exist , isn't this ?

But this is happening right here in Chicago . You don't have to go to the Middle East to find this hatred it's all around us and it's the tyrants of the world . 1 John in the first letter of John , john speaks to this in chapter 3 , verse 11 , and it's love one another , that's what we're called to do , and so John writes this .

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another and not be like Cain , he said , who was of the evil one and murdered his brother . And why did he murder him ? Because his own needs were evil and his brother's righteous . Do not wonder , brother , that the world hates you see , the world hates us .

Why does the world hate Christians , especially those , of course , christians that are like Abel , really walking into the story , kneeling down , opening their hearts up to God ? But we gotta do that in prayer , craig . We gotta do that with mass and the sacraments . You're not doing any of that .

You're walking into this world that's battling all around you and you're just . You're like la-da-da walking through a fire zone with no protection . Do you not think you're gonna get picked off , and especially your kids ? Don't be naive , right ? And why did he murder his brother ? Because his own needs , again , were evil and his brothers were righteous .

Do not wonder , brother and brother , why the world hates you . We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brother . This is the difference . He who does not love remains in death . John the evangelist John says he who does not love remains in death . Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer .

Well , we see that , and you know that no murder has eternal life abiding in him . Are we not doing this ? Look , we're doing this in abortion , craig , all around us , we're killing our brothers and sisters in the womb and we let this go on . By this we know love , that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren .

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brothers in need , yet closes his heart against him , how does God's love abide in his heart ? Little children , let us not love in word or speech , but in deed and truth .

By this , we all know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him Whenever our hearts condemn us , for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything Beloved . If our hearts do not condemn us , we have confidence before God and we receive him from him whatever we ask , because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him .

And this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his son , jesus Christ , and love one another , just as he commanded us All who keep this commandment and keep his commandments , abide in him and he in them . And by this we know that he abides in us by the Holy Spirit which has been given us .

Craig , this Holy Spirit who has been given us , this is in our hearts . This is what we're looking for . It's amazing that we step out of the story , we step away from God and we wonder why our hearts are anxious . Craig , you need to get back down on your knees . You know this simple thing every morning , and this will begin to alleviate some of that .

Before you look at that phone on the morning , roll over , get down on your knees and say thy will be done in my day today , right . Then you have to get you and your family to the Eucharist . You have to get them to confession .

You know it was Jesus who left his heavenly Father and his earthly mother to become one flesh with us , huh , to join us in holy communion . And we walk away from that ? Where does that take place , craig ? In the sacrifice of the mass , in the reception of the Eucharist . Make no mistake about it .

When the smoke and fog clears our desire to be joined in marriage , to have families and become one flesh , even join in sexual union with our wives , with our spouses , that sacramental sign points directly to the Eucharist and God's desire to be in holy communion with us in a sacramental marriage . The union of Christ with man is in itself a mystery .

Well , we know that . But isn't it a mystery of marriage and a family of love ? Well , it comes with a mystery of God . From this mystery is born , in the Eucharist and in confession , a new man with a new heart . Craig called to become a partaker of God's life . Christ's union with man is power and the source of power to become children of God .

It is , in a way , the fulfillment of the destiny that God has prepared for him from eternity . This is what your heart desires . This is you're out of touch , you're out of communion and union . This is your heart saying . You know your desire is for eternal life , is for God . Allow that to move up . Why are you holding back ?

Why do you decide to stay in darkness . That's a real mystery , but it's a mystery that all of us fall into . See this divine mystery and our divine destiny that God promises us . It's advancing In spite of everything that's going around , all the unsolved riddles , all the questions , all the violence , all the evil .

Well , this is still going , we're still moving somewhere . And those that say yes , right the twists and turns of human destiny in the world of time , this is all gonna get over , for God has plans for you that stretch further and higher and are more life-giving than anything you would ever imagined .

Craig , you're dreaming a worldly power , just like everybody else , maybe not as big , but you got your money and you need money . You need boats , you need beaches , you need sex . If I could only have more sex then I'd be happy . Well , god gave us a lot of these pleasures in life . He's not a prude .

He wants you to have them , but you just gotta put God first . You know , I know Russell Russell Brand . If you know him , he was an addict . He said I was addicted to everything , and he goes on and kind of you know , kind of vulgar in a way , but it's worth reading . I still think he wrote a book Recovery .

I think it was called Recovery , freedom from Our Addictions . It was talking about AA . He said that he writes this we talk about . He was addicted to all kinds of evil . Right , he didn't have meaning and purpose or identity in his life . And he writes this here in our glistening Citadel of limitless reflecting screens .

He's talking about the iPhones that we all live in and the TVs and the computers we steer in . He said . We live on the outside . Today we may awaken in instantly and unthinkingly , reach for the phone . It's glow reaching our eyes before the light of dawn .

It's bulletins darted into our minds before even a moment of acknowledgement of this unending and unbending fact you are gonna die , you and your children and everyone you love is hurtling toward the boneyard . Oh , I know , you know , we all know .

But because it yields so few likes on Facebook , we purr on a blinkering compliance , filling our days with temporary fixes A coffee here , an Amazon purchase there , a flirt , some glinting twitch of pleasure like a silvery stitch on a cadaver that tied you over , and you're probably too clever to repose . And God , he goes on . End quote .

Indeed , while all this , in spite of all the riches of life and time , necessarily and inevitably lead to the frontier of death and the goal of the destruction of the human body . Beyond that goal , we see Jesus Christ who says I am the resurrection and the life . He who believes in me shall never die .

In Jesus Christ , who was crucified and laid in the tomb , he rises again . When you look over at Jesus on the cross , what is next to the cross ? He dies , he goes into the ground , but there's an empty tomb . Only in Jesus , duke , are you able to to conquer sin .

And certainly the last great battle is over death , and only Jesus is going to bring you out of death . You know , do we not see today in science and technology the false promise of immor immortality ? So many are focused on living a few more years . Brilliant people , knowledge of people who are not in touch with their own hearts .

We seek immortality for a reason . In order to begin our true adventure , we must shed our false illusions and try to fathom ever more deeply the language of the truth , that man's redeemer enshrined in the phrase . It is the spirit that gives life . The flesh is to no avail . We are invited here to enter the divine mysteries .

Craig , do we not sense this invitation in our own hearts that we're made for something more . That's what you said . This is the story that you want that you seek Beyond our worldly desires . Craig John Paul would say be not afraid . Be not afraid . There is a reason for your restlessness .

We often seek a scientific or technological or materialistic , where consumers answer to these hard questions . But our hearts are restless , lord , until they rest in use . That was from St Augustine , of course .

Right In this creative restlessness beats and pulsates what is most deeply human the search for the truth , the insatiable need for the good , hunger for freedom , nostalgia for the beautiful and the voice of conscience .

The appeal to the Spirit , the Holy Spirit , intended precisely to obtain the Spirit for each of us in our own hearts , is the answer to all the materialisms of our day . In these materialistic , you know and materialisms I mean , you know that we look out into the world and this is all there is . There is no afterlife , there is no conquering sin .

Well , most of the sexual confusion , addictions , anxiety in the world that we see , we're attempting to fill what ? The infinite desires of our heart with finite things that we grasp and we take From here . I stopped , I paused , I looked over at Craig . Craig looked up . How can I better hear the voice of God . How do I obtain that Spirit ?

I said , craig , it's right in front of you . It was given to you as a child . When in your foster family prayer again before you look at that phone on the morning , just slide to your needs , lord . Let it be done according to your word . Let your will be done in my heart .

Then , all day long , when you have temptations and problems and anxiety , when your heart feels you know out of whack , when you're fearful , just open it up . Open it up every timetable , everything to our Lord . You'll be praying all day . Open that , open that and always invite our Lord and take your family to confession and get them all to mass .

Be reading the scriptures every day 10 minutes , 15 minutes , that's all it's going to take and do it with the Magnificat . Get to know the saints . Read those meditations you will be guided every day by scripture and finally pray the rosary . You're in the car a lot . I know your job . You're in the car more than an hour or two a day .

A rose is going to take you 15-20 minutes . Pray while you're in there . Right , see our silence , demands of us , constant self-denial plunges up into the deep silence where God is going to speak to you , the word of God . God is speechless a lot of times . It's in the Eucharistic silence .

It's in the silence that we need to be alone with Him , to listen to Him , to ponder His words deep in our heart . In silence , we're filled with the energy of God Himself that makes us do all things with joy . St Teresa of Calcutta , mother Teresa , said this the fruit of silence is prayer . The fruit of prayer is faith .

The fruit of faith is love and the fruit of love is service to others . Love God , be filled with God and go out and love your neighbor . What a difference from the rest of the world . This is where it all begins , craig , in the heart . Mother Teresa went on to say this to be only all for Jesus , we need a deep life of prayer .

How do we learn to pray ? She said by praying . Let us adore Jesus in Eucharistic silence . Souls of prayer are souls of great silence . We must endeavor to live alone with Jesus in the sanctuary of our inmost heart . In reality , there is only one substantial prayer Jesus Christ Himself .

One voice which unites in itself All the voices raised in prayer to Jesus Christ . So let me end with this Jesus does not leave us in our brokenness . Jesus comes in , just like Cain . He says you know , raise your head toward me , you can be a master over this . You could be a master of your own heart . Well , how do you become a master of your heart ?

You open it up to the heart of Christ . You become united to Him . Our mastery is not alone . Our mastery is to be united and open Our fiat . Be it done to me according to your word . Do that every morning . Craig Right , jesus didn't come for sin management . He came with power . Jesus doesn't come to leave us in our brokenness .

He came to heal us as the great physician . The answer for us found in the simple words from Sister Faustina . Jesus , I trust in you . These are not just words . Jesus , again , didn't come for sin management . He came with power . Start right away Again , drop to your knees . Let it be done to me according to your word .

Every temptation , every temptation becomes an invitation to prayer . Every anxiety , every thought becomes an invitation to prayer . And finally , go out and love the next person . You see , those are your three things . Start with that Love God , be filled with God , open yourself up so that he can purify your heart and then go out and love others .

Right Read scripture . You got to have the sacraments . Pray the rosary and you're gonna find your way back . God bless you . Talk to you soon .