#433 Jesus said, "Be Watchful! Be Alert! You Do Not Know When The Time Will Come"; The Universal Call To Holiness

I hope every day you're spending some time reading scripture . Certainly try to read scripture before you go to Mass and so you can sit on , meditate on that scripture . Today , you know , in this crazy time , you know , the scriptures just come alive and they tell us what we should be looking for , what we should be doing .

So here's the Gospel according to Mark . Jesus says to His disciples be watchful , be alert . You do not know when the time will come . It's like a man traveling abroad . He leaves home and places his servants in charge , eats with his own work . Well , that's us . We're the servants that Jesus put in charge .

You know Jesus was here , he redeemed us , he gave us the path to salvation and then he left , but he sent us the Holy Spirit right . That would be with us always , this power of His redemption . And now we wait . We have this . You know this ushered in the end times .

We've been in the end times for a while , but we know something's up , but whether it's , you know the end times . You know Jesus said you know it's not up to you to know the exact dates or times , you know he didn't even know . He said it's up to the Father , but , but , but , but , tick , tick , tick , tick .

You know the end is coming for all of us and we know the power of sin and death . You know is , is is around us . So Jesus is just saying look at I , I , I created you for something more , for union and communion with me . I want you to be with me , be alert . And what is it ? What is this alertness to ? What could we do today ?

Well , it's the universal call to holiness . This is what Jesus came to do . You know , how can you be in union and communion with God forever unless we are on a path to the universal call to holiness , and , of course , that that comes from Christ himself , to be united with Christ himself .

And this , the sign of this , is right , stamped into our very bodies and our creation is male and female the sign of the union and communion that God wants with us . It's amazing , it's , it's right , built into us . It's a desire to love and to be loved , and this is an eternal sign of God , that who wants to bring us into eternal love .

So buckle up and get ready for the rest of today's episode , as we try to figure out how to live in this crazy world . You know , we've been given all this , it's poured out to us . It's something that we have to , to remember , we have to live out and we have to be on .

It's a journey that's going somewhere and in our own lives , hopefully , we have been going somewhere . Hopefully you're not the same person that you were 10 years ago and 20 years ago . Hopefully you're closer and closer and closer to that , that universal call to holiness , you know , which is a universal call to love .

You know , this isn't brain surgery right To be filled with divine life and love , which will make you holy . And then you go out into the world and you give yourself away , and it's in giving yourself away that you , you become holy . Really , you become holy in your actions and drawing on the power , the divine power .

Well , this has been going on for a long time . So listen to this reading from the book of Isaiah today . This is the prophet Isaiah . This reading came from chapters 63 and going into 64 . And here it is . Think about this . This is , this is thousands of years ago , right ? This is before Jesus Christ and the prophet looking to our Redeemer , looking to this .

Right , this is the story we came into . You know , we think about the ancients and , looking back , well , you know , they're struggling with the same things that we were . You know , this is a universal call to holiness . You know , depending where you came in in history , your place , your time , but at the end , we came upon the stage now .

We just happened to be the people that are alive today . Most of the people that ever were born are gone , aren't they ? I mean , we forget about this as we're arguing about politics and this , and that you know there's much evil in the world , but it didn't start yesterday .

Here's from the prophet Isaiah you , lord , are our father , you , lord , are our father , praying to the father , the Abba , papa . And then he's going to he's , he's , he's the avenue , the , he's the path to redemption . He sends the son , and it goes on to say our Redeemer , you are our father , you are our Redeemer , you are named forever .

And then , why do you let us wander ? You feel this frustration from Isaiah . Why do you let us wander , oh Lord , from your ways ? I mean , isn't this today ? And listen to this and harden our hearts so that we fear you not ? So why do you let us wander away and harden our hearts so that we fear you not ? You know this hardness of heart .

Isn't this today , where we've actually closed out God ? We've forgotten God ? Huh , and then return . He says . Isaiah is pleading to the father , abba , papa , return for the sake of your servants , the tribes of your heritage . Well , of course you know he's looking ahead , and it wouldn't be that long in time in history he would .

The Jesus Christ would actually come into this story , right ? And Isaiah goes on oh , that you would rend the heavens and come down with the mountains quaking before you , while you brought awesome deeds we could not hope for , such as they had not heard from of old . Something new , right , something new .

Isaiah is saying no ear , listen to this , this is so beautiful . St Paul picks this up in one Corinthians , in fact , I'll go to this after that . But after this . So Isaiah is saying no ear has ever heard , nor I has seen , any God , but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him .

And then Isaiah is going to you know , look ahead and say when that day comes , hopefully you find us doing right . This is what Jesus was saying in Mark's gospel . So listen to Isaiah again , would that you might meet us doing right ? But we were mindful , watchful of your ways . Behold , though , you are angry because we are sinful .

All of us have become like unclean people . All of our good deeds are like polluted rags . We have all withered like leaves , and our guilt carries us , carries us away like the wind living in the spirit of the age . There is none who calls upon your name , who rouses himself to cling to you , for you have hidden your face from us , isn't that today ?

There are none around that are calling on Jesus . Who rouses himself to cling to you . We're turning away from God , aren't we , for you have hidden your face from us . Well , in a way , god is allowing us to bring this evil in . He's not shaking everything up right now . He's allowing us to fall into our sins . It's pretty clear today , isn't it ?

The weeds in the wheat , those that are turning to Jesus Christ , asking to be in union commune with Him , and those who have rejected Him . You could really see this playing out all the way up into the Vatican . We know that in this universal call to holiness , we have to go into Mother Church and receive this holiness from Her .

Yet on the outside , the Church itself looks like it's broken . But don't forget that there's this inner holiness there and you're going to receive that at the Mass . Yet , o Lord , isaiah goes on you are our Father , you are Papa , we are the clay and you are the potter . We're the clay .

We allow Jesus to come into our hearts and redo us , make this clay that's been tattered and broken and put back together again . And he ends we are all the work of your hands . The Word of the Lord . We are all the work of your hands , and that's true . That's when we open ourselves up to Christ . We become the work of God's hands .

We allow Him to be the path , and not only the path , but to actually give us the grace in this call to universal holiness . And so again in there we read what no eye has seen , nor ear has heard , nor the heart of man conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him . That's from St Paul , who took that right from Isaiah .

St Paul , of course , knew the Old Testament really well . So that's from 1 Corinthians 2 , verse 9 . But let me just go a little bit further into 1 Corinthians . So 1 Corinthians 2 , verse 6 . And I'm going to read from 6 to 16 , because this is so important . This is our story . This is the story that Jesus is telling us to go back in , to be alert .

This is the invitation from Isaiah , the true wisdom of God how should we live ? And Paul writes this . Yet among the mature , we do impart wisdom , although it's not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to do what , to pass away .

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God , which God decreed before the ages for our glorification . None of the rulers of this age understood this , for if they had , they would not have crucified the Lord of glory .

But , as it is written , what no eye has seen , nor ear heard , nor the heart of man conceived , what God has prepared for those who love Him , god has revealed to us through the Spirit , the Holy Spirit , for the Spirit searches everything , even the depths of God .

When Jesus was ready to go back to his father after he had risen from the dead , he said it's good that I go , because when I go to the Father we will send the Spirit , the Advocate for you . And so the Spirit searches everything , even the depths of God , and Jesus said he will draw from me and give it to you . We become temples of the Holy Spirit .

This is the call to universal holiness . How can the Holy Spirit dwell within us if we are not at least trying to open ourselves up to the Redeemer ? He can't . So here is verse 11 . For what person knows a man's thoughts except the Spirit of the man which is in him ? So also , no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God .

Now we have received not the Spirit of the world , but this Holy Spirit which is from God , that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us from God . And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom , but by the Holy Spirit , interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit . This is why I pause again .

This is why we see this separation between the weeds and the wheat . Those who have accepted and asked for , who seek and search and call upon God , just like I say call upon God . Come into my heart If we don't , st Paul writes . This is verse 14 .

The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God , for they were folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they were spiritually discerned . The spiritual man judges all things , but is himself to be judged by no one . The spiritual man judges all things , but is himself to be judged by no one . Why is that ?

For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him ? Who knows the mind of God so as to instruct us on how to live ? Well , we have to receive that from God himself , from the Spirit . And what mind do we have ? St Paul ends up with this but we have the mind of Christ . We have put on the mind of Christ . This is our story .

Huh , every day we stand at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , don't we ? And I always say this before you look at that phone in the morning , just drop to your knees . This is such a blessing in my life . Drop to my knees . Drop to your knees and say your will be done . Today , our Lord , I open my heart . Your will be done .

And number two again the temptations will come . Temptations will always come . Remember temptation is not a sin . Jesus himself was tempted . Open up your temptations to Jesus himself , who will come into your heart right . So every temptation becomes an invitation to prayer . Here's what I'm going through .

He already knows I give it to him and I take on his mind , his heart . It untwists and undistorts those temptations into love . And then , finally , number three , become a person of love , receive divine life and love , and then walk into the story and become love .

I mean , this is not brain surgery , it's not easy , but this is exactly our call to the universal , call to holiness . And so I read the rest of the gospel . According to Mark , jesus said to his disciples Be watchful , be alert . You do not know when the time will come . It's like a man traveling abroad .

He leaves home and places his servants in charge , each with his own work , and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch . Watch , therefore . You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming , whether in the evening or at midnight , or at the cockroach or in the morning . May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping .

What I say to you , I say to all watch , watch . This is the gospel of the Lord , this is our story today . We were watching , we were sensing something's going on , don't we ? We all have this within us . You know , those of us that are open to the Holy Spirit , we have a sense that something's wrong . Right , well , we should .

And we have a sense that even in our own hearts , we need to come closer and closer to God . Look , evil is around us , there's no doubt . But while evil is going on , don't just get caught up . We have to get , you know . We have to do right , we have to bring good into the world , but in order to do that , we cannot give what we don't have .

It's always first a drawing , it's a receiving redemption , grace , love to be filled with love , and then go out into the world and do good things . That's what Jesus says . He leaves home and places his servants in charge , each with his own work to do . Each of us has our own work , our own mission .

You know God loves us all universally , collectively , but first individually . You know this is not just a collectivist thought . The difference between Christ and the world is he loves you individually . He's going to come into your heart individually , and then you go out and bring everybody to Christ so that all can be one .

You don't lose your identity though you become who you are , united to , the one who unites us , to all our brothers and sisters in the world . There is no other solution . With that right , I came back into the church after a 20-year absence , on my knees . I just told this story . If you haven't heard it already , go back to just this previous podcast .

I believe and love a letter to Danny . That's my brother , danny . And so I came back into the church after a long absence , on my knees at the side of my brother Daniel's bed , as he was dying of AIDS . You know , unbeknownst to the rest of the family , he had been sexually abused by her pastor .

He would turn them to drugs and even a homosexual lifestyle , before succumbing to AIDS at the age of 29 . But God , as he wanted to do , turned evil into good . Dan was , at that time , was the only one of five brothers who had come back into the Catholic Church after a hiatus and was receiving the sacraments . See , this is the universal call to holiness .

There was a pastor within the church , right , the evil that people are bringing into the church . The church itself is holy and the church wants to make us holy . It's very hard to understand that sometimes , but at the mass is where we really witness this right .

Well , speaking of witnessing , I witnessed him there , at his bedside , fight his way out of a coma , come back to the surface as he was dying when he heard our voices to give us a simple message before he died let's pray , pray to God , to Abba , to this Abba , to God that Isaiah is talking about , to stay alert what Jesus is talking about .

Well , danny's mouth was dry and I was shaking a bit right and I said , danny , did you say let's pray ? He said pray to God , yes , yes , pray to God . Very clearly , In the next few minutes , I would have an experience that changed my life and put me on this trailhead of this narrow road and a journey back into the church . See , back into the church .

The gospel itself and the church is not about more information . This is the DNA , this is what we have to understand . When we come back into the church , when we get down on our knees , when we pray the rosary , when we receive the Eucharist and go to compassion those things we start to find peace , we start to find joy .

In the midst of this chaos , we start to have the power to love one another . Right , it's the very DNA that runs through our body , and so we were made for this .

It's the power John Paul talked about it often when the experience of your life meets the gospel , meets the sacrament , in such a way , you have that aha moment , right , and it's that new lens that we see out into the world and we see differently .

Getting back to St Paul , we're no longer the unnatural man who takes in the spirit of the world , but we become the supernatural men and women that we were created for . Well , how do we do that ? Well , we have to take in divine life and love .

Right From the moment I began to study John Paul's work , especially on the theology of the body , I knew it was the truth . I knew it was the truth that I had been searching for my whole life , answering those big questions who am I ? What's my purpose ? How should I live ? Why were we created , male and female ?

How do I find joy and peace here on earth ? How do I find love that satisfies forever ? Well , jesus is love . God is love . In order to find love that satisfies forever , I have to go in and become one in union and communion with the God , who is love . This is what I give to my bride . This is what we share with one another , isn't it ?

And that's why St Paul would say in Ephesians 5 , verses 25 to 27, . And John Paul called this passage the summa or summary of his entire teaching on theology of the body . And it talks about marriage . It's the two bookends of marriage in the whole Bible . The whole Bible can be expressed in five words God wants to marry us , god wants to marry you , me .

So marriage starts in an earthly paradise with the marriage of Adam and Eve .

It ends in a heavenly paradise in the book of Revelation , the last book of the Bible , with the marriage of Christ and the church , this marriage that we seek in the families that we want to form here and procreate and make visible the invisible , the spiritual and the vine in the world . This points us directly to the marriage that God wants with us .

This is just a little tiny taste , and so here it is . Husbands love your wives . How , as Christ loved the church , his bride , so husbands love your bride as Christ loved his bride . See , this is the primordial sacrament of marriage of Adam and Eve .

Before sin was a reflection of Trinitarian love in the world , as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her by the washing of water , with the word that he might present the church to himself and splendor , without spot or wrinkle or any such thing , that she might be holy and without blemish .

So Jesus is active oblation to the Father , this gift of Himself to the Father . He takes on our flesh and this we are the bride . He takes on His bride and he makes her clean , See , without spot or wrinkle or any such thing . We draw from this church . See , this is the universal call to holiness . So this is what we're called to enter into .

Every one of us should be focused on this , the universal call to holiness . So let's go a little deeper . It's a little heavy , but at the end of the day , this is what God wants with us . Marriage is a little heavy , right ? You don't approach marriage just lightly , right ? So again we had that summa of John Paul II's entire teaching on theology of the body .

Husbands , love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her . That's how a husband should love his wife . Make no mistake about it . When all the smoke and fog clears , man's yearning burning desire .

Man's that means men and women , right , male and female are yearning , burning desire to love , to be loved , to join a marital union points directly to the Eucharist at mass , and Jesus' desire to become one flesh with us . That's one great sacrament .

You know , in these evil times of confusion in the world and within the church , we have a lot of evil in the church , but see , the church is not evil . The church is that spotless bride of Christ . So , you know , I just most days I just bypass everything coming out of that Vatican right now .

I mean there's just so much evil there and there's good there too , of course , you know , but I don't need that right now . I just don't need it .

You know we have church teaching , we know what that is , but this is a , this is specifically calling you into a relationship with God , and we don't need any pronouncements from some , some , some goofball cardinal or bishop that came off the rails , right , we just don't need it . You could just step into this story . Right now . We need the church though .

We need the church , we need a good priest , we need the sacraments , right , and so , at the end of the day , it's important to remember that the church is like this then , so . So here's very important is is believed to be in defectively holy , indeed Christ , the Son of God , who , with the Father and the Spirit , is praised as uniquely holy .

Love the churches as bride , delivering himself up for her . So you see , this bride , this beauty of the church , don't walk away from the church because of the sinful people in it . Go directly to mass , receive the sacraments .

See , in the old days it wasn't too long before we had , in fact , it wasn't long ago before we had social media and the cell phones and everything we didn't know what the Pope was doing all the time . Right , almost , almost sometimes . We just need to ignore that . And so how did he do this ? Right that he may sanctify her ?

He united himself to her , his , his bride , the church to himself as his own body . And so it becomes one with Christ . When we enter into the sacraments and prayer , we enter into this mystical , this mystical spiritual union with Christ that the saints and the mystics talk about .

And then he brings the church to perfection and as bodies , as organic building blocks of the church , he's calling us into perfection . How does this happen ? It's a gift to the Holy Spirit for God's glory . Therefore , in the church , everyone , whether belonging to the High Archery right , the bishops or the Cardinals , or even the Pope , or being carried to it .

We're all called to holiness , right ? Look , I used to look up at the Cardinals and the bishops as these people that know so much , and then I found out you know what they're just like some of them are . Just like these educators that have PhDs psychological head disorders , I think and the same thing , you know , they're fallen .

If they're not called to this universal call to holiness , then they wasted all of that time . Right , this isn't about more information . This is the DNA that's within us , right ? So all of that evil in the church or the Vatican ? Well , who are we ? Right , we're called to be holy . So how do we do that ? We go receive the sacraments First of all .

Confession is so important , right , to be washed of the water , to be washed of our sins . It's like a nuptial bath , getting ready for the wedding feast , and then we go to Mass and we receive Jesus in the Eucharist . That's like making love , a spiritual love , a spiritual oneness .

Right , I receive Jesus , he becomes one with me , I become one with Him and he brings this oblation to the Father . So I read Scripture every day , because this is God speaking to us , right , he's telling us what he's doing and what he's thinking . And then what do we do ?

We take that into ourselves , and then we have to act , we have to become so we receive divine life and love , and then we have to be divine life and love in the world . Right , this isn't not easy , but on the other hand , it's not brain surgery either , right ? So let me just go on .

From St Paul in 1 Thessalonians , chapter 4 , verse 3 , says this for this is the will of God . What is the will of God ? Your sanctification ? We came to a full sense of the dignity of all of us , all the lay faithful , if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father , god the Father , assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ .

How , through the Holy Spirit , who has been given to us a vocation to holiness , the perfection of love , the Lord Jesus , the divine teacher and model of all perfection , preached holiness of life to each and every one of His disciples , of every condition . He Himself stands . Jesus stands as the author and consumator of this holiness of life .

He said in Matthew 5 verses , verse 48 , be there for perfect , even as your heavenly Father is perfect . Well , how do we do that ? We join with Him and we allow Him , his perfection , to be risen to the Father , and then he pours this , the Holy Spirit , back into us , right ? We receive that redemption . It's amazing .

Jesus didn't come here to manage our sins since he came here with power , right ? So this charge is not a simple moral exhortation , but an undeniable requirement arising from the mystery of the Church .

She is the choice vine , and all the branches , all the different parishes are growing out of that choice vine that Jesus has redeemed His bride and grow with the same holy and life-giving energies that came from Christ . She , the church , is the mystical body whose members share in the same life of holiness as the head who is Christ .

She is the beloved spouse of the Lord Jesus , who delivers himself up for her sanctification . See , when we enter into the church , when we're baptized , when we walk into the story and are we open up our hearts this is what we're doing the Holy Spirit that's sanctified , the human nature of Jesus and Mary's Virginal womb . This is from Luke , chapter 1 .

Right off the bat read Luke . Now that Advent is here , just chapter 1 . Archbishop Fulton sheen summarizes the teaching of countless saints and mystics when he proclaims this listen to this , and this came from St Augustine and in the third , going into the fourth century , talking about Jesus , any , any enters the marriage bed of the cross .

This is profound , he's right , he says this . Now , we've always thought , and rightly so , of the son of God on the cross and the mother beneath him . So so Jesus's mother Mary's beneath him . But watch , he's gonna call her woman . She changes her role . So he said , that's not the complete picture , that's not the deep understanding .

Who is our Lord on the cross ? He's the new Adam right , the new bridegroom .

Where's the new Eve at the foot of the cross if , if he became the mother of the living in the natural order , right in the beginning , the first book , end of the Bible and Genesis , it's not this woman at the foot of the cross to become another mother , and so she becomes a symbol of the church .

And so the bridegroom looks down on his bride from the cross . He looks at his beloved Christ , looking at the church Right , and there , right , there is the birth of the church .

If St Augustine puts it and this is from , but Bishop sheen wrote this down , but he said , as St Augustine puts it , and here he says , I'm quoting St Augustine verbatim the heavenly bridegroom , left the heavenly chambers with the presage of the nuptials before him , he came to the marriage bed of the cross , a bed , not a pleasure but a pain , uniting himself

with the woman and consummated the union forever , as it were . The blood and water remember when he got hit with the lance in the heart by the soldier ? The blood and water that came from the side of Christ was what , the spiritual seminal fluid , impregnated the church . It's amazing , right , the power of this . And what came out again ?

The water and the blood , the water of baptism , the blood of the Eucharist . Woman , there's your son . And so this is Jesus looking down and here , woman , there's your son . Well , who's the son ? That was John , the evangelist that was writing this . This is the beginning of the church . Christ himself gave up for her , gave , gave himself up for her .

The bride right that she might be . What immaculate . Let me finish like this , jesus , and this is from Deus Caritas est , God is love . This is Pope Benedict the 16th . This is so beautiful . This is his first encyclical .

Jesus gave this act of oblation , offering himself to the father and enduring presence through his institution , institution of the Eucharist at the last supper . The Eucharist is so important right . He anticipated his death and resurrection by giving his disciples and the bread and wine , his very self , his body and blood as the new manna .

Read John , chapter 6 , right verses 31 , and on . He goes on to say the ancient world had dimly perceived that man's real food , what truly nourishes him as man this is man and woman is ultimately the logos . See , the ancients knew this right , the even .

You know that the Greek philosophers look for wisdom , eternal wisdom , this same logos , this eternal wisdom now truly becomes food for us as love . Eternal wisdom is love . The Eucharist draws us into Jesus's act of self-oblation , this offering of himself for his bride . We enter into the very dramatic of his self giving .

The imagery of marriage between God and Israel is now realized in a way previously inconceivable . It had meant standing in God's presence right in the Old Testament with Israel , but now it becomes union with God through sharing in Jesus's self gift , sharing in his body and his blood . The sacramental mysticism grounded in God's Descension towards us .

Old Jesus , coming down toward us , huh , enters into our world and to do what ? To give himself for us in love . It operates . Benedict the 16th said this operates at a radically different level and lifts us to far greater heights that anything that any human mystical elevation could ever Accomplish . So powerful , isn't it so quickly ?

Three-step plan Get on your knees before you look at that , that goofy phone in the morning . Look , the phone can bring some good stuff , but it also wastes a lot of time and brings all this noise into your life . Always the knees first and to say in the morning your will be done .

Right , we kneel before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and instead of choosing the world , we choose God . Right . Number two every temptation that comes at us , then we're gonna use that as an invitation to prayer . Whatever that temptation is , open , open , open and invite the Holy Spirit in . Invite Jesus into our hearts , right ?

Jesus , who initiated love , who gives you the power to become a person of love . So , so when we do this again , we've said let it be done to me according to your will . Every temptation I lift up , I keep inviting Jesus into my heart . All day , the Holy Spirit resides within me and what happens ? I'm receiving that love .

And then I have to love others in the truth and then speak the truth in love , right ? The last thing I'll just say to you . So that's the third thing right action . Be a person of love and then , finally , always Confession once a month of possible . Receive the Eucharist as often as possible .

Be praying the rosaries incredible Do when you pray the rosary , especially in the evening . Or say before you go into bed to Anytime right , but this is how you can just relax into a into an incredible meditation and a gift . Every night , read scripture . I try to read scripture every day , that scripture for the mass the next day .

God is always speaking , speaking , speaking , and then Be quiet . Well , take a walk , sit there in silence and after you read scripture , just allow that , don't even think about it . Just allow God to tell you what he wants to tell you . It's such a beautiful thing . Huh , this is the , the universal call to holiness . This is how we do it .

Hey , god bless you . Thanks for being with me . Goodbye everyone .