#491 Dear Young People Pay Attention! You Live In Evil Times. Do Not Stay on the Surface, But Go To the Heart of Things!

You know , there's a time and it's now . We can't just beat around the bush anymore because I'm meeting too many young people that are anxious depressed , even suicidal wondering , you know , what's going on in this world and they don't have a clue . They're looking for help . They're looking for answers . So here here's here's the way I look at it .

It's an injustice . What's being done ? To young people today . You know , you're only free if you understand your choices , your choices to be free . Most of us are enslaved to and we're enslaved by sin . It's it's taken us down , and we live in this like a like like the like the frog and the proverbial pot , you know , we've normalized the thaw .

And these poor young people , they they have to hear the truth . They have to hear the gospel . There you you can't just you know , I I there's so many churches I visit the John Paul to Renewal Center and and what are they doing to Young ?

You know , they're playing Kumbaya and they have , you know , big fire bonfires outside and , you know , playing all these games . And also things are all good . You know , kids need to burn off some energy . They need to come together . They need to share . And and have some fun . There's no doubt about it . But you also have to share the truth with them .

You know , if all they have is choices that are evil or mediocre at best , which is in an evil day , mediocre will not get you where you wanna go . You have to step into the story that we're in and the story is so beautiful , so powerful . You they want to when they hear this or at least I have a choice to do this . So here's what I wanna do .

Over the next few weeks . I wanted and and I did this a couple of years ago , and I it's time to do it again , where just leave a message for young people . And I'm gonna try to get it out on on a Friday or Saturday , depending on my schedule , if I'm in town , and I can get it out on a Friday . I'll do it .

But Friday or Saturday , watch for it , and I'm gonna just started out with dear young people .

And so if you're a mom or a dad or a grandparent , etcetera , and and you have kids or you know kids and everybody knows some somewhere , get this get this in their hands , you know , at least if they are somewhat bright looking for some answers , looking for something more than the world offers And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take them today , I'm gonna

take them through a a story . It's really get back to their hearts , get into their own hearts , and and really spend some time wondering , you know , get if if you go deep enough , if you get off the the surface of things when you go deeper , you'll find something deep in your heart , which will already align with the message that we're gonna be talking about .

So anyways , with all of that said , buckle up and get ready for today's episode . They're young people . Good to be with you or in young at heart also . There's an injustice being done today to you today . And you know , the injustice as many of you have never heard the truth .

You don't really understand the evil of the day , and you're wondering why your hearts are anxious is even depressed in a in in a long way . Well , it it it's because your heart wants something more . It's seeking something more . It's cognitive dissonance . From a psychological standpoint .

You know , it's when your heart isn't lining up with what you're experiencing out in your life . And many of you have parents who have never even baptized you . You know , that's big mistake number one . You're you're you're just sending your kids out like lambs to the wolves if you're if you're doing that .

And I know so many Catholic and Christian families too that never finished the the religious formation with their children and look at , I get this too . You know , it's a it's a baby boomer . You know , we grew up in this age of of moral relativism too . So look at , I'm not I'm not saying , you know , you know , this is anybody's fault .

You can't just point to other people . We just all have to stand up where we're at , stop pointing fingers . And do the old GK Chesterton's statement . You know , what's wrong with the world ? What's wrong with Christianity ? I am . He said , I am . This is what we have to do . We have to take it around ourselves . We're walking into a story now .

And I wanna take you into your own heart because this is This is really I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my story too because I wanna talk to you about the heart because it's it's it's natural . Normal . It's the way we were created . Supernatural , actually . The way we were created . And and we know all of this in our hearts .

So that's the power of Christian unity . That's the power of Jesus Christ . That's the power of the holy spirit within you . That's the power of God's plan . For of creation and in salvation to bring you back into the story . It's a love story . It's always been a love story . I wanna start with a story about Naomi Wolf . Naomi Wolf .

And the reason I'm gonna do this now , she she's not a kid . She's a a woman probably in her late fifties , maybe mid to late fifties . She was very liberal , and this is why I wanna tell you the story . Very liberal . Grew up basically without a religious faith .

And she was stood up for all the liberal issues , you know , the LPGT Q stuff , pro abortion , etcetera , etcetera . And just going along . And then when COVID hit , She's she she started to see what the vaccines were doing , especially to young girls and stuff . And and so she's a researcher . So she started to research this .

And she found out , wow , there's a lot wrong with this . And and , anyways , got a hold of documents . It grew . And she thought , wow , this is gonna be great . You know , going to write about this and warn people about it .

And as soon as she did that , as soon as she start to speak up and and push back against this these progressive ideologies that are pushing down on us , that we don't even notice until we tried to stand up . Bang , she was attacked . So this is what I wanna kinda just set this up .

You know , she was living in like this frog again in the proverbial pot going down this broad highway . And when you're just going down a broad highway , you've normalized sin , you've normalized the fall , you don't even know how bad things become or how bad you become and you just float downstream . It's only when you stand up .

Stand up when you start to get little inklings of the truth and you see , wow , I'm not even free . I'm full of of of all this suppression . I'm enslaved actually to to sin . Don't even understand it yet , but you start to stand up for the truth and then boom that force of that water starts to come at you and she immediately got hit by like a train .

Now Guys like me , we know this already . We've been standing up . I mean , just a simple thing , praying outside of an abortion clinic . You see vitrol is , you know , people is kinda spitting at you and even , you know , you you're you're always on the precipice between good and evil . I'm always I think about revelation .

Revelation chapter three verses fifteen when you're when you're hot or cold , when you're neither hot or cold , you're lukewarm , you never know . You never know . But but the principalities and the powers , the evil out in the world , it will take you down . So if you think you're loop warm and you can just stay there , hey , good luck playing your kumbaya stuff .

You know , you're it's not good enough . Today . I'm I'm sorry to be the one wake up if this is true . Try to stand up for the truth . You're gonna find out how far off base you are , but until you try to do But anyways , so Revelation three verse fifteen , Jesus Jesus . Right ? I know your works . You're neither cold nor hot .

I wish you were either cold or hot . So because you're lukewarm though and neither cold nor hot , I will spew you out of my mouth and then he goes on to explain what he says there . But basically , it's what I'm saying here . You know , you're going along with your riches and , you know , you're dining out and your new car and all this stuff .

And you don't realize how far that you fallen . It's when you stand up against evil that you really start to notice it . So why should I stand up ? Because your eternal soul is at stake . Of course , you know , we we don't realize this . You know , when I speak to people , how fearful they are of dying . Look at nobody wants to die .

I I remember my my grandmother Kay was an orphan when she was young at ninety three years old . She would pass away . And she would tell me she goes , Jackie , she goes , I'm not afraid of dying . I just don't wanna be there when it happens , you know . And and , you know , she she was right . You know , she was the oldest person that ever became Catholic .

At eighty eight years old , came back into the church and and and so I just wanna bring it up . You're seeing people coming into the church . It'll pretty well known people at Tammy Peterson , Jordan Peterson's wife , Candace Owens . Russell brand is it it was just baptized . I don't I don't know much more about that .

Joe Rogans talking about coming back into a faith or taken on a Christian faith . You know , I speak at our CIA's , you know , when new people come into the church . These are large groups today . So people are waking up and it's either your your the weeds or the weed . You know , it's really easy now .

Once you get the eyes to see in the ears to hear , you can really see people separating themselves . I don't think God is gonna have a hard time deciding where we're going at the end here .

You know , those of us that are at least trying , looking at it in all their weaknesses , and all their faults , and I have many , many , many myself , and we're standing up . So anyways , let me let me read it to a little bit about Naomi Naomi Wolf because this is the story of standing up , and I know again she's older than you guys .

But here's what happens if you don't stand up now , if you don't understand the story now , you're gonna find yourself approaching sixty years old , looking back at your life and going , why was I divorced ? Why was I unhappy ? I had these abortions . I didn't have children . I did this . I did that .

And now I'm looking back at my life and I go , what was that all about ? See , it's you have to wake up when you're younger so that you could go out , live a fruitful life . Too many people that I know waited too long . So this is going back . This article I wanna read you about her as she was waking up .

Was written by John Horwett the second back in February of twenty twenty two . And so this is this is again , she saw this happening at COVID . She started to wake up . So let let me just read you this . He says , we live in ever more sinister times . To call our time sinister , might appear stream since evil has always existed and manifested itself to humanity .

However , evil has long advanced by hidden means to crop with greater ease . Darkness descends gradually among the decadent mediocrity of our days . However , this age old tactic is changing .

The chilling presence of pure evil appears much more frequently The shock of a raw encounter with this dark horse is enough to shake us in the depths of our souls and even change our lives . This radicalized evil startles raises questions and invites supernatural reflections not common . In our secular times , something's hitting a nerve .

Such as the curious case of Naomi and Naomi Wolf , she encountered this dark portion when she challenged the cherished liberal narrative . Her particular her particular angle hit a sensitive nerve that unleashed this disproportionate wrath that she qualified as evil . Doctor Naomi Wolf is not given to wild imaginations or conspiracy theories .

She graduated from Yale University , received their doctors from Oxford , As the bestselling author , columnist and professor , she is outspoken in her defensive all leftist causes . LGPQ issues , including pure cured abortions .

And if she's not afraid to say what she thinks , Wolfe was an adviser on women's issues and messaging to both the Clinton re election campaign and the Gore two thousand presidential election . Now , however , she recently encountered the principalities and powers . That's from Ephesians six , I just butt in right now . Right ?

We're we're Saint Paul said this is not , in fact , Maybe I'll read that to you real fast if I can find it . Yes . So this is from Ephesians ten . Well , let let me go down to twelve versus twelve . So this is the story right now . We are not contending against flesh and blood , but against the principalities .

And against the powers , against the world rulers of this present darkness , against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places . This is it . This is we're not contending against flesh . You know , when you see somebody as cropped as Joe Biden and his his family and just crop politicians , you know , the , you know , weak and and immoral .

And it though , that's this is the , you know , supposedly the world leader , you know , and you look at him , and it's it's pitiful . And but we've elected him . You know ? Look at the election was was was was rig to a certain extent . I won't get into all that stuff .

But at the end of the day , there was enough people still that boater for him and put him in . And this is what I'm saying . They're sitting in that proverbial pot , voting for someone as immoral as him . Right ? Puts him in as the leader of the free world but we're not free anymore . Right ? We're starting to come down .

And so this is the principalities in darkness . This is orchestrated when you see COVID-nineteen and all these things and the climate of fears and stuff like that , you know , pushing down on you , these vaccines , etcetera . You say , well , how could this all be coordinated ? You know ?

And , well , it's coordinated because the principalities and the powers , these are demons This is under Satan's rule . He gets into everybody said , he is the one coordinating all these thoughts and stuff . Very easy to manipulate people . But I let let let me go on from here . Right ? So her case now experiencing the wrath of the liberal establishment .

Let me go on just a little bit more with her . Her case triggered this wrath because it threatened a vital narrative crucial to a progressive agenda . She stood up in other words against the this this floating downstream . It need not be a single issue . It can be the pandemic , the vaccine , the economic meltdown , or breakdown of moral order .

Indeed , conservatives have long experienced the disproportionate wrath of the opposition on the whole spectrum of issues . What is different today is the increased intensity of this wrath and the willingness of Liberals to attack their own . Doctor Wolf crime was questioning the effects of the vaccine on young girls .

She has long produced similar exposes denouncing big business interests all to the applause of the liberal establishment . She expect expected the same reaction to her well researched articles . However , she was shocked to find herself on the wrong side of the narrative .

She soon discovered that lifelong , well educated colleagues journalists , editors , professionals , critical thinkers all , rejected her broadside and clung to the talking points of CNN and other major media . They asked her not to show them the evidence unless they lose their status , their job , their opportunities . Isn't that amazing ?

I go on the the progressive right on part of the ideological world . She said , my people , my tribe , my whole life , became more and more uncritical , less and less able to reason . See that ? You lose your reason . Your reason . This god given reason that we were given to what to to search for the truth , now your reason becomes unreasonable she found .

So she found out that they all turned against her . This issue was not just the vaccine , but it challenged to the whole narrative . And indeed , The New York Times would later break the same story that she broke earlier , but they didn't dedicate her because she they knew now she had stood up against them . And she says this , the evil is just too massive .

She appeared that the broad side was not against her but represented an infection of the soul . The abandonment of the most cherished post war ideals , and the dropping of post enlightenment norms of critical thinking . She was impressed by its organ orchestration and agility . See , again , you start to see only evil could orchestrate this .

And let let me just give you a word or so on this post enlightenment norms of critical thinking . Well , what was the enlightenment ? The enlightenment was to take this reason that we just mentioned our logical thinking , our reason that's searching for the truth , and disconnected from god in a word .

We thought while man's reason is enough , disconnected , delinked , like cut flower from God's wisdom and grace , and a man could figure this out on his own . Putting man in the center of things . When we found out very soon , didn't we ? That when you take wisdom a great grace away from a reason , your reason becomes very unreasonable .

And over time , you you have the spiral that we're in right now . Right ? So this overwhelming attack represented something very profound and sinister , she said . Doctor Wolf concluded that this edifice of evil is too massive , too quickly erected , too complex and really too elegant to assign to just human awfulness and human invictiveness .

She was perplexed by this intelligent force that was much more powerful than anything she had ever experienced . She recalled the the comment of a Christian medical freedom activist who had suffered similar treatment in CALOMNI . He said he found courage in Ephesians six twelve .

This is what I just read for you for we're wrestling , not against flesh blood , but the principalities and powers against the rulers of this darkness against the spirits of wickedness in the higher places . When the hammer of evil fell upon her something clicked that made those words come alive .

Indeed , she had countered the devil who embodies evil in its most extreme and radicalized form . She felt the majestic nature of the awfulness of the evil around us The presence of principalities empowers almost awe inspiring levels of darkness and of inhuman antihuman forces . This narrative generated anti human outcomes beyond the reach of humans alone .

From this sinister impact , they're awakened and her soul a belief in the presence the possibility , the necessity of a countervailing force that of god . An evil so big demands a god that can address this danger . Now , I'm not gonna go in . I'm gonna end the story right here of Naomi because I wanna get a little bit further into your hearts , young people .

But I just wanted to give you this this is the reason people are starting to come in and should give you hope that people are seeing this evil And and there's there's two ways to look at this , you know you know in a way it's it's make maybe makes you sad . That you came into an evil world .

On the other hand , for for me , and of course , I'm older , is I'm kind of glad this happened because waking people up and would you rather as a young person be waking up to this battle so that you can get into this battle and bring good into the world you know , bring love into the world , bring truth into the world , or just be blown around by the spirits

of the age , maybe forever until , you know , you're an ear old person at ninety three years old , like , my grandmother Kaye . And it wouldn't be something if you had to look back at your life . Now my grandmother didn't do this . Right ? She was wise by She was a she was a wise woman , and she understood the the battle between good and evil going on .

But , you know , can you imagine sitting on a rocking chair as an old person ? Looking back and saying , oh my gosh , what just happened ? So let me just talk to you a little bit about this love story . You say in the midst of all this Jack , you're gonna talk about a love story . Yeah . And and it's a love story that we already know .

And so here's the power of the story that we already know this in our hearts . We you know , this is not about more information . This is about the DNA that flows through our system . See , this is the beauty of our our our Christian and our Catholic faith , that this story resides within it .

So when you when you listen to your heart and you get in touch with the desires of your heart , when you look out in the world at your life experiences and you have this , again , this cognitive distance , what's going on here ?

And then when you're open to it , you hear the gospel , you hear revelation , and it works with everything else around you and everything else starts to fall into place and you understand the story that we gave into . So it's always been a love story . And you know what ? I'm gonna talk about my own story a little bit because I knew all this in second grade .

So we think it's so complicated and and and it can be , of course , but we know this again . Right ? I'm gonna quote Jesus here . Jesus turned this is from John one thirty eight thirty nine . Jesus turned , saw the disciples of John the Baptist following him and said to them , what do you seek ?

And they said to him rabbi , which means teacher , where are you staying ? And he said to them , com and see . Com and see . Isn't it beautiful ? I've been studying and teaching and speaking on John Paul the second's work , especially as theology of the body for almost seventeen years now .

And as dense of this is this extensive body of work can seem at times a dawned on me that it's not that difficult to understand . Really ? You just have to keep in mind that it's all about God's plan for us and God's plan has always been a love story . We were creative for one main purpose .

And that's to make God's own eternal love story visible in the created world . Whoa . What a different story . Right ? And the one we just were talking about . Saint Paul frames it perfectly for us in Ephesians five thirty one thirty two , Nal . This is Ephesians five . Right before we're warned about evil and Satan .

So , see , this has been going on for a long time . Yet he's gonna be talking about marriage in his love story and Christ in the church . So this is what he says in Ephesians five . For this reason , a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two should become one flesh . And he says this is a great mystery .

And I made a reference to Christ and the Church . So what happened ? What happened ? This is they're both telling a love story . Your desire to love and be loved , maybe even into into to marriage , right , where the two become one , literally one in in marital sexual union . This is point that Jesus Christ , he says , and he says this is a great mystery .

And I mean in reference to Christ in the church . Well , what happened ? You know , this evils in the world has been unleashed in the world . And what has happened , the bridegroom , the eternal bridegroom come came in , and he gives himself to his bride , the church . And where do we where do we come one flesh with with him in in the eucharist ?

So our our story our love stories a reflection of god's inner life of love , and this is what we're created for , evil came in to destroy that .

In other words , the reason a man again shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and to become one flesh is to make visible and point to Christ Jesus Christ , the bridegroom's love for His bride , the Church . Think about this . It was Jesus who left his heavenly father and his earthly mother to become one flesh with you and me .

And where do we become one flesh with god ? In the eucharist , Make no mistake about it . Our deepest yearning burning desire to take a husband or a wife and become one flesh and a miracle embrace is a sacramental sign of love or should be that points us directly to the eucharist and god's desire to become one , flesh with us .

In a sense , I already knew this in second grade . I was born on the South Shore of Chicago , the oldest of five boys who lived on an the second floor of my grandparents too flat and they lived beneath us . In the back was a small yard with a gate that opened up to the alley our main artery to the rest of the world .

It was here that my brothers and I were awakened to the three core themes that are built to the very DNA of any man , that life is to be an adventure , that it's gonna be a battle , And finally , that the meaning of purpose behind it all is beauty , especially the beauty of love .

One day , as I was unlocking the gate to the alley , my brothers were just behind me . All of us eager for our adventure , we were well armed for our battle . We had our rubber band pistols and homemade wooden swords . And as I was opening the gate , I I was stopped in my tracks by these angelic voices , and I looked up .

And there they were and they were beautiful twin sisters maybe in fourth or fifth grade , but to my innocent and great heart , they possess something words cannot describe , and I experienced probably for the first time the magnetic power that the beauty and miss of a woman can have on a man's heart , power to draw him out of himself , even my younger brother sent

something specialist happening . And they didn't clamor to get out through the gate or asked me why I stopped . One of them even mustered the courage to wave and say hello to those girls . The girls glanced over and generously gave us a little wave and disappeared down the alley . Oblivious I suspected the impact they were having on us .

We discovered that the twins lived three blocks down the alley on the top floor of a three flat . And from then on all , our adventures began in that direction .

In fact , the three flat was actually a castle controlled by an evil knight who was holding the twin the princess twins captive It was now our sworn duty to rescue them , and often had great danger to ourselves , and after a raging battle , we would storm the outer door of the castle , fight her way up the stairway and rescue those girls . The princess twins .

Right ? Over one summer , we must have rescued them dozens of times . And the tragedy is that they never knew they were being rescued . This is chivalry and its finest .

At the same time , I want to be a missionary priest , and I wrote snail mail in those days to every missionary order I could find that sent priests to exotic places with names like Tanzania , Xinyanga , the Congo , but I also felt called to be part of this adventure . This battle .

And as from as early as I remember , I had a deep almost innate sense , especially in the mass , but this was also for beauty . The beauty of the sacred .

Somehow , in my second great mind , I was onto some pretty profound theology , and I didn't have a problem holding on to my attraction to the beauty and mystery of those twin sisters and simultaneously holding on to my attraction to the beauty and mystery of the sacred . My attraction to the beauty and mystery of god himself .

Later I would learn that I was in touch with the two bookends to frame the whole story of the bible They could be summed up in five words . God wants to marry us . God created us with his love story inscribed in our hearts stamped right into our very bodies that we could make visible in the created world his love story .

The body , John Paul , the second said the body and the body alone is capable of making visible what is invisible , the spiritual and the divine . It was created to transfer it into the visible reality of the world , the invisible mystery hidden in God from time and mortal , and thus be a sign of it . Think about it .

The Bible begins in Genesis in an earthly paradise with the marriage of Adam and Eve . It ends in the book of Revelation , the last book of the bible in a heavenly paradise with the marriage of Christ and the Church . Well , who is the church ? I am . You are . God wants to marry us .

For this reason , a man shall leave us father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh . This is a great mystery set , Saint Paul . And I mean in reference to Christ in the church . See , the deepest desire and yearning of the human heart is for love . The deepest desire of the divine heart is also for love .

Jesus in his very person is the perfect union of these two loves . And he offers himself to us so that we can enter back into the divine love that we were created for in the beginning before sin . How did he do this ? At the last supper from Luke twenty two nineteen . This is my body which is given for you . Make no mistake about it .

Once the smoking pog lives , our deepest desire for love , a man for a woman , a woman for a man points to the eucharist , holy communion , and god's deep desire for intimacy and union with you and I .

The whole love story inscribed in our hearts stamped into our bodies and all our deepest journeys to love and be loved can be summed up by the last words Jesus spoke in the gospel of John while he's hanging on the cross as he's dying giving his life to us . He says , I thirst . I thirst for you and prayer in the silence of your hearts now . Listen .

And you will hear him speak these words . I thirst for you . Abide in my love said Jesus , that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full . The irresistible promise of joy of satisfying our hearts hunger for love Isn't that what we're all looking for ?

Among all the great mystics , Saint Tres of L'Sue wrote of this with particular expressiveness , she said this . My Jesus pardon me if I am unreasonable in wishing to express my desires and longing which reach into infinity pardon me and heal my soul by giving her what she longs for so much . Jesus , Jesus .

If I wanted to write all my desires , I would have to borrow your book of life and yet she was convinced that God would not allow her to experience such bold desires unless he wanted to grant them . See , reading this was enough for me .

By the time I personally finished high school , I had already become jaded enough with what I saw and experience of the world that when I heard Jesus say to the father , he said this , this is from John seventeen . I have given them your word Jesus talking again to to the father , our father . I have given them your word .

And the world , listen to this , the world has hated them . Because they are not of this world . He's talking about his disciples , the people that follow him . Even as I am not of the world , I do not pray that you should take them out of the world , but that you should keep them from the evil one .

They are not of the world even as I am not of the world , sanctify them and the truth for your word is truth . As you sent me into the world , so I have sent them into the world . And for their sake , I concentrate myself . That they also may be consecrated in the truth . So I heard these words . I wanna I want the truth . I wanna know the story .

I knew what my heart to do had to be a bigger story that I was missing . I decided to go out and seek the truth . Before my high school graduation ceremony , I had already packed . I skipped to graduation parties . I said goodbye to my family and a few friends . I got in my car and headed west .

Almost immediately , I love the excitement , the sights , the sounds , the freedom . But even I and I I'm not an I wasn't naive . Even the danger of living on the edge of world I felt like I was on the edge than I was in a lot of ways .

Occasionally getting out to explore , say a new town I would come into , I would search for a coffee shop with a sidewalk table where I would simply slow down , observe whatever fate could perform me . I'd often have a sense that I had walked into the scene of a movie . I was like an extra without a script who no one even noticed . What would I find next ?

Well , would I eat ? Where would I live ? Again , I wasn't naive . I was born in Chicago where there were always dangerous lurking just beneath the the surface calm . But I had confidence without knowing why or how in Providence .

I had left home with no concrete plan , little money , a backpack , hiking boots , a few books on philosophy in the gospels , and a bicycle , my favorite thing , bicycle tied to the top . Life I knew would seem very short to me . Even at my young age , how many of us when were young don't think like that , but I did .

I drove away from home , simply knowing that I desperately needed fresh air and space in which to breathe . I was in touch with a mysterious force that created a sense of urgency within me to to follow any clues . That would help me discover what role if any that I was to play in a universe that might not care .

Within a story that I did not write , I wonder what sort of tail we fallen into said Sam Gamsi , Frodo's friend and and loyal servant . It's like It's it's like in the great stories mister Frodoie said , the ones that really mattered , full of darkness and danger they were . And sometimes you didn't , want to know the end .

Because how could how could it be a happy ending ? How could the world go back to the way it was when when so much bad had happened now ? But in the end , it's only a passing thing . This is a shadow . Even darkness must pass . A new day will come . And when the sun shines , it will shine out the clearer .

Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something even if you were too small to understand why . But I think mister Frodo , Sam goes on . I do understand . I know now . Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't . They kept going because they were holding on to something .

There is some good in the world and it's worth fighting for . Whoa . That's from the two towers . J . R . Tolkien Over time , the clues I found would lead me to some important discoveries . For instance , that creation has its own goodness and proper perfection but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the creator .

The universe was created in a stent in a state of journey . Just like we were created human beings in a state of journey toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained . To which god has destined it that comes right out of our catechism . God and here's something more from the catechism . God is the creator and master author of this larger story .

But when we come into the story , he leaves room for us to cooperate with him . Granting not only our existence , but also the dignity of acting on our own of being causes and principles for one another . And thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan .

God's creatures , both angels and men as intelligent and free creatures are given the freedom to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love . Created good to an act of love . By love and for love , we know that they can go astray and have sinned evil . The Ethereum and Equitatus and Latina . The the mystery of evil , moral evil .

In concursably , more harmful than physical evil has entered the world . Although they knew god they did not honor him to from Romans one twenty one twenty five . Although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but became futile in their own thinking , and their senseless minds were darkened .

Claiming to be wise , they became fools and exchanged the glory of god for images resembling resembling moral man or birds or animals . Therefore , god gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about god for a lie and worshiped and served the creature .

Rather than the creator . I mean , those words were written by Saint Paul over two thousand years ago . Dear young people . This is the world , the story that you came into , a battle of good versus evil . To discover the plan for your life , do not be disheartened . John Paul would say , be not afraid .

Do not be overcome by evil , but be overcome evil with good . And only god is good . You have to be connected to him . Evil is not some impersonal deterministic force at work in the world . It is the result of human freedom .

Freedom which distinguishes human beings from every other creature on earth is ever present at the heart of the just drama of good versus evil . Evil always has a name and a face . The name and face of those men and women who freely choose it .

Sacred scripture teaches that at the dawn of history , Ana Maneep rebelled against god and Adam was killed by Kain his brother .

These were the first wrong choices which were succeeded by countless others dialed through the entries , each of these choices has an intrinsic moral dimension involving specific individuals and specific individual responsibilities And the fundamental relationship This is it . The fundamental relationship with each person with god , and then with others , and then with all of .

Creation . At its deepest level , evil is a tragic rejection of the demands of love . That begins in each human heart with the rejection of God who is love . In this regard , Saint Augustine , St .

Augustine or Augustine , I say Augustine , observed that two loves have been established , and they have established these two cities Love of self carried to the point of contempt for god has given rise to the earthly city of man . Love of God then , on the other hand , carried to the contempt for self , has given rise to the heavenly city of God .

All of this is particularly evident to Christians who know that their membership in the one mystical body of Christ sets them in a particular relationship not only with the lord , but also with their brothers and sisters . The inner logic of Christian love , which is the gospel , is the living source of moral goodness leads even to the love of once enemies .

If your enemy is hungry , feed him . If he is thirsty , give him something to drink . Saint Paul writes this in Romans twelve twenty .

I settle for a time in Denver , Colorado moved around a bit in settled for a spell in Southern California searching , moving to a new scene , a place to hang my hammock , taking in the beauty , and I always offer danger , always paying attention to the signs of the outer world and my own heart .

And the parts being played by other actors in the story , Over time , I became ever more aware that the battle between good and evil going on in the world was also taking place in the interior world of my own heart . Often in the silence , I heard the words of Jesus Christ , what do you seek ? This had me pondering along with Sam Gamshi .

I wonder what sort of tail we've fallen into . One day , reading Alexander Schulteanneadson , it crystallized for me . He wrote this . He said Marxism claims that some groups and classes of human beings are good and others bad . So to perfect it self humanity must isolate and eliminate the bad people .

Schultz and Nissan came to realize and said that the dividing line between good and evil lies within every single individual human heart . The Marxist position thus argued that humanity would be perfected through the inevitable progress of world his three .

But if the dividing line is within all human hearts , however , 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 . See , we all stand in a sense before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and must choose .

In our search for meaning and purpose , we are agents sent out on a mission to decide which city we will cooperate with and build up the city of man or the city of God .

And it's only at the end when our partial knowledge ceases when we see God face to face Saint Paul writes in one Corinthians will we fully know the ways which God is guiding us within the larger story . But when we open up our hearts to him , he will guide you . I remember reading Henry David throw a lot at the in those times .

And and one one phrase a phrase that I wanna read to you right now always stuck out to me . As a backpacker and and somebody that loves to be outdoors .

He said I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately to confront only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not when I came to die , discover that I had not lived . For the mass of men men and women lead lives of quiet desperation . They don't know the meaning and purpose of their life .

Let me finish this with something that Saint John Paul the second said . Dear young people pay attention , your life is not an endless series of open doors . Listen to your heart . Do not stay on the surface but go to the heart of things . And when the time is right , have the courage to decide . John Paul the second . Hey , God bless you .

Look forward to being with you again next week . Talk to you soon , everybody . Thanks . Bye bye .