#437 "As The Family Goes, So Goes The Nation, And So Goes The Whole World In Which We Live"--St. John Paul II

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 aha moment .

See , that's the genus of St John Paul II's 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 . I'm back . I hope you're doing okay . This is the Advent season . It's really closing in fast . It's amazing .

So I usually leave that intro on Wednesdays , the one that you just heard on John Paul II's theology , the body , but in this Advent season it's just so clear this attack on marriage and the family , the understanding of who we are , our meaning and purpose , why we're created male and female , and these aren't just , you know , topics for discussion .

This is what our whole country , our whole nation , our whole world falls or rises on . John Paul II said as the family goes , so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live . It's amazing .

Right , take out marriage and the family , take out the child and the womb , take out the definition of marriage and the family , and everything will crumble . And there's a reason for that .

You know , john Paul II , new sister Lucia , the main visionary , that met our lady of Fatima on numerous occasions , and John Paul met her on numerous occasions and they shared stories about our blessed mother , who John Paul had such a devotion to , sister Lucia knew personally . It's amazing , right .

And so John Paul reminds us of this letter that sister Lucia had written , initially to Cardinal Caffara and then also knowing that John Paul would see it , when they had planned to establish the pontifical study for marriage and the family in Rome . And it was being attacked , you know , and they saw the brutal attack not only from the outside but from the inside .

You know , satan , the smoke of Satan , has entered the church . We see that now in so many of the Vatican officials .

You know , it's amazing how this thing's all playing out and and this is why I'm bringing it up , because in that letter we find written the final battle and this is where we're at now the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan is going to be about marriage and the family .

Don't be afraid , she had it , but whoever works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought against and opposed in every way , because this is the decisive issue . So she says you know , don't be afraid , but she warns us that whoever works for marriage and the family is going to be fought again and opposed in every way .

This is what we're seeing today , because this is the decisive issue . Well , why shouldn't we be afraid ? Because , nevertheless , she ends like this our lady has already crushed his head , our lady has already crushed his head . So this is what we sometimes , we forget . And this is the good news , right ?

You know Christ has already come into the world and and redeemed it . The battle's won . Our lady has already crushed his head , satan's head , and so , in the eternal world , you know , he's been defeated in heaven . Yes , we live in a temporal world , we live in a world where this battle continues to rage and it actually is accelerating .

And look at , this is the last remnant , you know , whenever God turns off the spigot and says , okay , there's gonna , there's enough of my children , human beings , my children , and that'll be the end and this will go away . And we know that . We all sense that .

You know we've been talking about the end times , for , you know , generation after generation after generation , we sense this . Now , right ? Well , I'll tell you what , if it's not the end time for the end of the world , because we don't know , christ even says you know , don't try to predict that time .

We know it's ticking down for for many of us , huh , and we're all on a banana peel of some way . You know , at the end of the day , here's the thing to remember . The battle has already been won . We're just . We're just in this temporal space to decide which way we choose . You know , it's amazing what I'm speaking to people they want to argue about .

You know , marriage , redefining marriage , or you know , or , or this incredible destruction of the child and the womb , and I just have to smile . I just say you know the battle's already been won . We already know that this is a child and we need to save the child . We already know what marriage in the family is . You know , we know these things .

You know these opinions and and and the devastation that you're wrecking and you're bringing in a wrecking civilization and and and Western civilization , but but the whole world , if they all , if they all jump in and jump off the abyss with this . So that's why I want to go today .

You know we live in a secular world and it's rotting from the inside out , and we already see that . Bishop Sheen reminded us of the of the 22 major civilizations that have come down , and now you know the United States will be included as number 23, . I suppose he said you know , 19 of those 22 rotted from the inside . They weren't taken from the outside .

And this is what we're seeing . The United States , the most powerful , richest country in the world , is , is , is is rotting just like , just like all the other ones from the inside . This is historic in that we can see it in history and it's it's pretty understandable in history . How many people know and are fighting on the good side ? You know that's a .

That's a good question . That's a good question . I . You know , from voting ranks , it seems like it's about 50 50, . You know , when you get to politics , when you get to our Senate and Congress , it seems like we're losing the battles , right , I'll give you a couple of examples in a few minutes .

But we have a sense , right , that the country and the world is hydra of current evil , is coming at an all direction .

So we all seek solutions and we're all trying to chip away , and I know some very , very good people chipping away at different things , some of them fighting the border crisis , some of them against the war in Ukraine , starting to unpack what's going on in Israel . You know we see the corruption at the highest levels of government .

You know Joe Biden who's just proud of his son and you just watch him on some of these videos and just go . You know you could love your son , but to be proud of him for everything that he's done , I mean it's amazing . Corruption and of course , all the bribes and stuff going on . We see the dual justice system . We have that . That .

You know Biden administration weaponized and you know he didn't start this , it was , it was a weaponized before him , but he continues it and he really bought into this where we weaponized the FBI , the CIA , the DOJ , homeland Security to go after people who do not give , give into until the line right .

We see FBI rating Mark Hauke , father of seven , because he stood outside against a murdering children in an abortion clinic . It's amazing the people that were there on January 6 at the Capitol and look , they've been in prison for three years now with no charges and no bail offered them .

It's almost inconceivable when we're we have a state like Illinois where I live , that's cashless bail . Now you don't even need bail , they just let you out . And for the most violent of crimes sometimes we see what happened with the vaccines .

You know the doctors , the , their few voices that stood up and their license were revoked and they were attacked , censored , and you just see , man , you got a total line , total line , right ?

We see this in the corrupted public school systems , the library systems now , where they're pushing pornography and all this twisting and distorting of our sexual exploitation and our sexuality to children , to children , you know before the , you know well , before the age of reason , and just stuffing them full of this stuff . Right I just a couple of headlines today .

One of them is man behead Satan statue in Iowa Capitol . You may have heard about that , baphomet Baphomet . Who's ? You know this picture of Satan with the goat with the big horns , the satanic display that was in the Iowa state Capitol .

Well , michael Cassidy of Mississippi , who is a military of retired military officer , former congressional candidate , he destroyed that holiday satanic display at the Capitol and he then he turned himself into police officers who were present there at the Capitol and and was confirmed at the satanic temple of Iowa desires to press charges .

So , cassidy he's a Christian and there's a great picture of a handsome guy said he took down , he took action to tear down the display in order to awaken Christians . The anti-Christian acts promoted by our government . The world may tell Christians to submissive .

Submissively accept the legitimate legitimization of Satan , but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of satanic alters inside Capitol buildings , as protected by the First Amendment .

He said Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstream more and more in recent decades and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water . Cassidy said I saw this blasphemous statue and it was outrage . My conscience is held captive to the Word of God , not to a bureaucratic decree decree , and so I acted .

Shortly after the news of his action broke , cassidy took to Twitter to quote the Bible , verse 1 Peter 5 , verse 8 , be sober , be vigilant , because your adversary , the devil , is a roaring lion walking around seeking for who it can devour . This is what's going on in the society today , isn't it ?

A couple other quick headlines the House spending bill got passed on the defense budget , and so here's what our military does . Now you probably heard this right .

You can go have an abortion and it will send you to states if you live in a state that doesn't allow abortions , and it will send you to a state like Illinois to have your abortion and pay for that . It'll pay for your transgender surgeries . Now it's amazing what happens .

The left-wing National Catholic Reporter , which is a magazine , celebrated pro-LGBTQ nun sister Janine Gramick . She's famous for her pro-LGBTQ kind of stance as the newsmaker of the year .

So here's a Catholic periodical , a , celebrating a Catholic nun who doesn't believe in the teaching of the Catholic Church , that has no understanding of what marriage in the family is it's amazing , you know and believes that a man can become a woman . It's almost too much . Pitt , the University of Pittsburgh , pitt , is under federal investigation for fetal experiments .

Well , I reported on this over a year ago . What they're saying is that , under allegations that unlawfully obtained parts and tissues of board of children for experiments , the Daily Wire reported the experiments , including scalping five-month-old fetuses in order to stitch their scalps and skin back onto lab rats .

So they're not going after them for taking the scalps of babies and stitching them to lab rats to see how it would grow , but they're saying , were those parts illegally obtained ? I mean , this is where we're at .

I have a friend of mine who goes to St Mary's in Indiana , a Catholic women's college there , right Famous Catholic women's college who's now accepting males who claim to be female . This is a Catholic school again . Hallmark . You know this hallmark . You know you remember all these great little stories , christmas stories , the hallmark .

Well , now it's pushing the LBGTQ agenda , christmas time , we've got Disney in on the action , etc . Etc . You know , the United States went further even than the rest of Western civilization . It was built on Christianity and the understanding of traditional marriage in the family right .

This is what civilizes civilization , this is what makes it civil and brought all those beautiful buildings and architecture and a respect for human dignity that the world never knew before individual human dignity .

Where the United States went further right , they went back basically to the early Jewish history , after Moses led the Israelites out of slavery into the desert and there was no king . They were led by shepherds like Moses and Aaron , and then judges after that , people they respected and they followed right and heard the word of God and proclaimed the word of God .

So what happened is then they demanded a king later on , and when they demanded a king , god warned them that they rejected him as the king . They wanted an earthly ruler , and then he told them everything that would happen , and sure enough that it did Well .

In the United States , we were the country that flipped it on its head that said no , we don't need a king , a ruler , just like the early Israelites . We flipped it on our head and said the people will rule this , but the founding fathers said that it has to be a moral and religious people .

It has to be a moral and religious people in order to do that and we elect representatives that we trust to do our bidding right , to take the essence of who we are and to bring this to Congress and the Senate , to bring laws into our country respecting marriage in the family , our freedoms to worship how we want to , right , so that they can go back to

their farms and businesses and stuff , because it takes a lot of time to do that right . Well , what happens to a country that the people themselves are beginning to rot ? Huh , the people themselves have given over to evil . The people themselves no longer understand the human dignity of each individual person .

You know , we take the old people out with youth in Asia . We take the young people out in the womb . If a young child makes it past the womb right and escapes into life itself here on earth , what do we do ? Huh , we indoctrinate it , we sexually exploit it and we bring it into this pornographic culture . We redefine marriage , but we went one step further .

You know homosexuality , sodomy , right , sodom and Gomorrah from the Old Testament . You know , there's nothing new under the sun , really . The killing of babies goes on , but we put it into law , we put it into law , we in the United States put it into law . So that's a big deal , right ? Both children and marriage . Right , we decreed it into law .

There's nothing of worth , you know , and this is worse than foolish , for you know , people , by the millions , babies of course are losing their lives every day and millions more are losing their eternal souls . And this gets back to my original premise here is that the battle has already been won . What we're trying to do is save souls for eternity .

You know , christ already came into the world . He already redeemed us , you know . But the God who created you without you will not redeem you without you . You're free to accept . This is what this comes down to , and it's a violent struggle . Huh , satan is violent . When you reject God , you reject the person of love , and so what happens ?

You have hatred , you have violence , you have death and murder coming into a culture , you know wars , etc . So we become a very sick , sick society reflected in an ugly culture .

I mean , you know , taking out what is true , good and beautiful and literally , literally , literally , are allowed to dismember children in the womb , put up , you know , these , these statues and stuff of Satan himself and our public square , redefine marriage , cosotomy , marital union . You know .

You know , my wife and I have have all the same organs , right , the only organ that's different , I mean , we have the same , we each have a heart , we each have a stomach , we each have two lungs , etc . Etc . The only organ that's different is our reproductive Oregon , right , and the same thing with systems . You know , I have a muscular system , so does she .

I have a nervous system , so does she . I have a digestive system , so does she . And on and on and on . The only system that's different is the reproductive system . This is natural law . I mean , you don't have to be a religious person to understand natural law , where babies come from , why marriage is there .

So here's the basic thing is our whole culture , our morality , our virtues , the people that we are , stand on those two pillars of understanding the dignity of the individual human life and we have to stand against abortion and other things , right , that are going on to destroy that and even take an advantage of the poor , the uneducated , etc .

And the other thing is marriage and the family and the destruction of marriage and the redefining of marriage . You take those down and it's going to fall . That's just the reality of where we're at and how it rolls . So if you look around you say okay , well , how can we change this ?

You know you have to get back to biblical roots and you have to understand that and you can't be . You know the German bishops and so many in the Vatican today this sexual confusion of what marriage is , what children are . Matthew Kelly wrote in Rediscovering Catholicism .

We wrote this over 20 years ago and he really talks about everything that went on as the early church developed and I want to read you just a little bit from the introduction . And as the centuries have passed , he defined . You know how it got started and grew from just a few members . And as the centuries have passed , much has changed .

Today Catholicism is the largest faith community in the world , with over 1.2 billion members In every time and place . For 2000 years , the Catholic Church has fed , clothed and housed more people in need than any other group or institution in history .

The church was responsible for the birth of both the education system and the healthcare system that stand as pillars in our modern society .

I don't know if people really realize that right At one time it was just the nobles , the very rich , that educated their children , and you know , the rest of the people weren't worthy of that , and that's how they regained , how they retained power to and passed this on from generation to generation to generation .

They used to leave people that were sick just out on the streets and stuff . It was the Catholic Church and those that embrace Christianity that went out and developed the education system for all , healthcare system for all .

I don't think we understand that Throughout the centuries the church has also been the largest benefactor of the arts , creating culture , and everything flows in politics and economics , flows out of culture .

You know , culture is like this , this malou , this ambit , this , this really , if you think about the essence of how we live and where we live , with art and music and education and everything , and then other and the people flow from that into politics and jobs and and , etc , etc . So , as the culture goes right , and where does the culture come from ?

The culture comes from stable marriages in the families , right , and then Christ and the church back up . Throughout the centuries the church has been the largest benefactor of the arts , nurturing these elements of cultural life that have the ability to elevate the human mind , heart and spirit so effortlessly to the things of God .

Think about the beautiful cathedrals and stuff that were built on the architecture , it's amazing . The paintings from Michelangelo and all the way down , it's amazing . Today , the church is the largest landowner in the world , owning land in almost every community , from the most remote rural locations the most sophisticated cities .

In this modern day and age , the Catholic Church remains the world's premier institutional defender of what human rights ? And yet , as great as our achievements may be , as great as our numbers are , today we seem unable to capture the attention and intrigue the imagination of people the way our spiritual ancestors did .

The story of Jesus Christ is the most powerful story in history and has directed or indirectly influenced every noble aspect of our modern civilization . But amidst the hustle and bustle of our daily lives , it's easy to become distracted and distance ourselves from this story .

But from time to time someone comes along who reminds us of the spellbinding power the gospel has when it's actually lived out . See , this is what John Paul II has done , right ? He unpacks it in the way that we start to understand this , and he warns us that Christianity built this up but we took it for granted .

Now we are no longer moral and virtuous people , and so we're starting to see this come down . There is a homily that John Paul II gave on November 30th 1986 . And it was the first week or the first Sunday of Advent . He's doing it in Australia and he said the time has come . He quotes this is Romans 1311 , the time has come . You must wake up now .

Our salvation is nearer than it once was . And he said , dear brothers and sisters in Christ , with the solemn words , with these solemn words , the liturgy of this first Sunday of Advent leads the whole church into a time of expectation and preparation .

It's a time in which each Christian community relives the sense of expectation which the prophets arouse in the people of Israel as they look forward in hope to the fulfillment of the promise . A young woman shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel , which means God with us .

It is a time of preparation for the coming of a child , the Prince of Peace , the infant of Bethlehem , who is the same time the Son of God , the second person of the most holy Trinity . My visit with you here in Western Australia then coincides with the preparation for Christmas , which is a special day for families in Australia and many parts of the world .

And now he's going to dig into family here . He says the family in God's plan for humanity and for the church is the theme of this Eucharistic celebration . The Son of God and becoming man began that special family which the church venerates as the holy family of Nazareth Jesus , mary and Joseph .

It's amazing , right , jesus comes , comes to enter into history , huh , to break into history , to redeem and save us . And how does he come in ? Through a family , not writing on a great stallion , not with explosions going on and rocking the world , the whole world shaking . No , a humble baby , right , a humble baby comes in and , born in Bethlehem .

The holy family lived in Nazareth , this backwater town , the most humble of towns . People used to say in the , in the Bible , when they heard of Jesus , they go , nothing comes , nothing good comes out of Nazareth .

Right , so he said I greet you , the families of western Australia , I greet you , husbands and wives , fathers and mothers , sons and daughters , grandparents and all of you who have the welfare of the family at heart .

And then he goes on to greet the , the bishops , and , and and those in the church , the state and government officials , everybody right , and again he starts with the family , links it to Christ in the church , and then that goes out and , and , and he's , and he's .

He's acknowledging the state officials , the , the civic officials , and he says this to them all the family is the domestic church . The meaning of this traditional Christian idea is that the home is the church and miniature . The church is the sacrament of God's love . She's a community of faith and life , she's a mother and a teacher .

She's at the service of the whole human family as it goes forward towards its ultimate destiny . We have a destiny if we forget again that the battle has been won , that we're going someplace . We're fighting for our eternal lives and our eternal destiny and we're trying to bring our families .

That's why it's you know , we , we hear that you know your job as a father is to get your wife and your children . Your job as a mother is to get your husband and your children to heaven and then hopefully goes out and brings in our neighbors and our family at large outside the immediate family . So I begin again with John Paul's homily .

In the same way , the family is a community of life and love , just like the church is a community of life and love . It educates and leads its members to their full human maturity and serves the good of all along the road of life . So here's , here's the culture , right , the family is the first and vital cell of society .

In its own way , it's a living image and historical represent , representation of the mystery of the church . The future of the world and of the church therefore passes through the family . What he's saying here , even the church , of course , the culture and the church is made up of people , marriage in the family .

You take marriage in the family out and destroy it as you have you , as you've seen it done in western civilization , now in the united states . Then who ? Who fills up , who fills the vocations ? Who becomes the priests ? You know who goes to mass anymore ? Right ? Who receives ? Well , it's , we don't . We live in a world of dysfunction .

And so John Paul goes out and he says this it's not surprising that the church has been , has given much thought and attention in recent times to questions affecting family life and marriage .

Nor is it surprising that government and public organizations are constantly involved in matters which directly or indirectly affect the institutional well-being of marriage in the family . And it is everyone's experience that healthy relationships and marriage and family are of the greatest importance in the development and well-being of the human person .

So again , it starts with the human person . It's the human person , it's the child in the womb that's allowed to live , but then it's an education in love in the family and then in an education of what it means to be human coming out of the family . The mental illness that we see , that dysfunction going on right , where does it come from ?

Divorce , children being out , born out of wedlock , children being indoctrinated in schools , you know , by these experts , huh , the economic , social and cultural transformations taking place in our world are having an enormous effect on how people look upon marriage in the family .

As a result , many couples are unsure of the meaning of their relationship , and that causes them much turmoil and suffering .

On the other hand , many other couples are stronger because , having overcome modern pressures , the exercise more fully that special love and responsibility of the marriage covenant which make them see children as God's special gift to them and also to society as a whole . As the family goes , so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live .

With regard to the family , society urgently needs to recover an awareness of the primacy of moral values , which are the values of the human person as such , thus recapturing the ultimate meaning of life and its ultimate values . He names Australia . Could be the United States or Western Europe .

A nation of so much hope , an opportunity needs to know how to safeguard the family and the stability of married love if there is to be a true peace and justice in the land . There will never be justice and peace in this land when we try to redefine marriage and when we destroy the life and the womb .

This is these are my words it's just , it's not gonna happen . You know everybody , you know working on different things and we all need to be working on different things and doing our role to stand up for what's true , what's good , what's beautiful .

But at the end of the day , make no mistake about it , if you take those pillars out , redefine marriage and the family , which we have done , redefine what it means to be a human being and destroy any child . You know Mother Teresa said isn't it a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you can live as you wish .

John Paul goes on to church in Australia and everywhere , has a specific task to do what ? To explain and promote God's plan for marriage and the family , to help couples and families to live according to that plan . The church reaches out to families in the first place , of those Christian families striving to be ever more faithful to God's plan .

She tries to strengthen and accompany them on the path of growth . But she also reaches out , with the compassion of the heart of Jesus , to those families that are in difficult or irregular situations . See , jesus Christ came into the world not to condemn the world , not to judge the world , but to save the world . He knows that we're sinners .

He came in with mercy and forgiveness . Jesus hanging on the cross is not condemning you . He's given his life for us . This is not an easy road , right , everybody knows that . But the problem today is when we go along with all this stuff , what are we doing ? We're just normalizing the fall . This again . This battle has been won in eternity .

It's just up to us to decide . What do we do ? Do we give in to death and destruction or do we choose life ? That's all it is , you know , and at the end of the day we're no longer free because we lost sight of it . When we normalize the fall , we lost sight of eternal life , of union and communion with eternity .

You know the Pope's thesis our bodies , in fact our bodies alone , make visibility invisible , the spiritual of the wine . Our bodies were created to transfer into the visible reality of this world that we see that mystery hidden from all eternity and God and be a sign of it .

Well , what is that mystery hidden from all eternity and God that we're a sign of , especially in marriage and the family ? God is an eternal exchange of love , god , the Father , who pours his love out into the Son . The Son receives that love and gives it back to the Father .

And it's so beautiful and profound , this eternal exchange of love , that what is begotten of that is what it's a person , the Holy Spirit , the love between the Father and the Son . That spirit resides , or at least it has been given to us .

Jesus' passion , death and resurrection on the cross redeems us by his blood , the water and the blood , the baptism , the Eucharist , to flow down from Jesus' side .

But then Jesus , you know , ascends to the Father and he says it's good that I ascend , because then we will send you the Father , we'll send you the Spirit , the Holy Spirit , who will take what is mine and give it to you . The bridegroom on his wedding night he turns to his bride and he offers his life to his bride .

The bride receives that even in marital sexual union , and it's so beautiful and profound . Sometimes it is begotten right . What comes from that is procreation . It's the life of a child huh , making visible the love between a man and a woman .

This is a tiny reflection , the family , marriage and the family of the Trinitarian story and the catechism of the Catholic Church . Number 221 says God is an eternal exchange of love and we are destined to share in that exchange . That's where we're going . See the church .

John Paul goes on and says this the church cannot say what is good is bad , nor she can't call evil good or good evil , nor can she call valid what is invalid . She cannot fail to proclaim Christ's teachings , even when these teachings are difficult to accept .

She knows , too , that she's sent to heal , to reconcile , to call to conversion , to find what is lost . Hence , it was with great love and patience that the church tries to help all those who experience difficulty in meeting the demands of Christian married life and love .

The charity of Christ can only be realized in the truth , in the truth about life and love and responsibility . The church has to proclaim Christ , the way , the truth and the life , and in so doing she has to teach the values and principles which correspond to man's calling to newness of life in Christ . Again , these are my words .

Now you know we have to die to ourselves , we have to die to our misunderstandings , we have to die to demanding sex any way we want , any time we want , and to kill the child that might come out of that sexual union . This is just a narcissistic implosion of self . Jesus on the cross says this is my body given for you .

Right , we have to die with Christ so we can rise with Christ and be persons of love in the world . The church , john Paul goes on to say , sometimes misunderstood and considered lacking in compassion , because she upholds God's creative plan for marriage and the family , his plan for human love and the transmission of life .

The church is always the true and faithful friend of the human person on this pilgrimage of life . She knows that by upholding the moral law she contributes to the establishment of a truly human civilization , and she constantly challenges people not to abdicate their personal responsibility with regard to ethical and moral imperatives .

Come , let us go up the mountain of the Lord that he may teach us his ways , that we may walk in his paths . With this invitation , the prophet Isaiah tells us how to respond to God , and this response applies also to God's plan for marriage and the family .

Couples are offered the grace and strength of the sacrament of marriage precisely so that they may walk in the paths of the Lord and follow his ways , observing the plan which Christ has confirmed and ratified for the family . This plan testifies the way it was in the beginning , as God willed it in the beginning for the well-being and happiness of the family .

In God's plan , marriage requires this , and I'll end with these four things . In God's plan , marriage requires what ? Number one the faithful and permanent love of husband and wife . Permanent love this is what we're doing on the altar .

Number two the indissoluble communion that sinks its roots in the natural complementary that , a complementarity that exists between a man and a woman and is nurtured through the personal willingness of the spouses to share their entire life project , what they have and what they are , with one another .

Number three it's a community of persons in which the love between a husband and wife must be fully human , exclusive and open to new life . No contraception , people , no , put a barrier between a man and a woman's love for one another , especially their sexual union .

It would be like receiving the Eucharist and not consuming it , but putting it in your pocket or putting it in your pew . No , we have to take it in , we have to become one with it . This is why we forget . As John Paul said , before you make love to your wife , take your shoes off , men , because you're entering onto holy ground .

This is a sacrament where the two become one , open to three . This , again , is that Trinitarian image . Number four , then , married love , is strengthened by the sacrament of marriage . So every time you make love together , every time the two of you come together in marriage , in the marital union , the sexual union , it's a sacrament .

The Trinitarian God himself Father , son and Holy Spirit is there with us . The grace is flowing into us with the sacrament , just like baptism . You take the water for cleansing and the water has a physical element to it the Eucharist .

At the end of the day , the sacrament is made up of two things it's the form and the matter , and again , the form would be the words of consecration from the priest at the altar over the Eucharist . But then the physical matter is the bread and wine .

Well , in marriage , your form or your wedding vows which you stated at the altar , the actual physical part of that , the physical aspect of that , is what the matter , it's your bodies . Your bodies are the sacrament . So this is why it's so important .

We don't really understand that , and so that's why married love is strengthened by the sacrament of marriage , so it may be ever more real and effective image of the unity which exists between Christ and the church . So you can't take out either one . We get our strength in marriage from Christ and the church .

We become an icon of that , a reflection of God's turnitory and love in marriage and the family . And so when you distort that image , when you twist that image , that's Satan himself , right . That's Genesis 3 . No to Eve , right . You won't tie . You will be like God's . You will be able to decide what is good and what is evil .

And what did John Paul just say no , you can't . The church has no power to do that , no power to change any of this right . We just bring this down from Christ , all right . So what can you do right now ? Go back and listen to some of my earlier podcasts . I call it All in Wonder in the Garden . We did like four or five of those .

I'll put it in the show notes . So look in the show notes and you'll get an idea . Meditate on those . Listen to all five of them they're not that long and just really meditate on what that means the beauty of marriage , the beauty of children , the beauty of God in the beginning , before sin came in the world .

Because we need that model to understand all this right . And then , don't forget , it's a universal call to holiness . All of this starts in our own individual human heart . So understand the model , listen to All in Wonder in the Garden .

I'll put that in show notes and then open yourself up to this universal call to holiness , praying the rosary , reading scripture every day . John of the Cross we just celebrated his feast day . He said in order to learn wisdom , you have to be a person of love . You have to be silent , he said , and you also have to suffer more mortifications .

You have to fast . You have to fast . So find a day I love to take . At least one day a week is my goal is and I have a brother that does it more often than that Just black coffee and water for the day .

And it's really something when you do that , how every temptation it comes your way , every little stomach , the growl , for you know you open that up to God and you've got your focus on God all day . It's really beautiful when that happens . All right , thanks for joining me . I hope to talk to you again next week . Goodbye everyone .