#497 Christ Speaks To Young People; "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Right before World Youth Day he gave a presentation , kind of as an opener to International Youth Day . I've taken those points that he made in that opening presentation , let's call it to young people , and I've expanded it out to a thesis and then , I think , maybe even a book .

We'll see what happens , but anyways , I've been talking about it the last couple of weeks and I'm going to continue it today . This one is titled Christ Speaks to Young People . When a rich young man comes up to Christ and he asked good teacher , what must I do to inherit eternal life ? And just a little snippet from that maybe to start with .

So a young man seeking approaches Jesus Good teacher , what must I do to inherit eternal life ? Jesus answers with a question why do you call me good ? No one is good , but God alone . Then he goes on . You know the commandments don't kill , don't commit adultery , don't steal , do not bear false witness , do not defraud , honor your father and mother .

With these words , jesus reminds his questioner of some of the main components of the Decalogue of the Ten Commandments . But the conversation does not end here . Remember Jesus always wants to speak to your hearts , to your heart . For the young man , declares this teacher , all these things I have observed since my youth .

Then writes the evangelist Jesus looked upon him and loved him and said to him you lack one thing . Go , sell what you have , give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven . And come , come , follow me . All right , I want to get into this a little deeper , buckle up and get ready for today's episode .

There is a direct attack on young people today , and the culture goes out of its way to join hands with the demonic , the reality of sin and evil in the world , and directly attacks the youth . It's amazing . This has happened throughout history , but never right in front of everybody . Have these attacks been so radically in front of everybody .

Have these attacks been so radically ? You know , if humanity has an enemy and it does Satan , of course where would he attack right ? Where would he attack young people ? Right , directly into their sexuality . And why is that ? Because that's where we come from . Second attack would be on their hearts .

Right , we would separate the truth of their hearts from the truth about God . And then what would they do ? They would twist and distort their very authentic identity .

They would no longer know who they are , and that would leave them without a redeemer , without a way to get out of this brokenness that they feel , to get away from sin , without a way to get out of this brokenness that they feel to get away from sin . Just yesterday there was a picture posted on X of two young women kneeling on the ground .

It was a black and white . It was something to behold Black and white , two women kneeling on the ground facing each other , near to each other actually , with their foreheads touching . One was really overweight , very heavy , and the other one's severely anorexic . And so you had this contrast in these two young women , and I believe the article was about compassion .

We're all broken and all those things are true , of course . Right , compassion , kindness , even friendship , perhaps you know to be extended to these young women if you had a chance . Right , but never confuse kindness with love . How many people like these young women and so many others have enablers in their lives who don't bring them the truth right .

And I know all of these things personally . I've gone through them all personally in my own family and also with people for years . I mean , that's basically I'm walking with people all the time and we all know personally or I should say many people personally know alcoholics , I certainly do .

Drug addicts who were enabled , often by caring moms and others who really love them , who are compassionate , kind . You know it's very difficult to really love people in the truth , right , but they allow these self-destructive behaviors to go on far too long without confronting the issues .

And having been on many of these instances already personally , like I said , I know it's not easy . I'm not saying it's easy , but again , don't confuse kindness with love , because that's not what love is . To be kind to someone and keep them in lies and falsehood . It would be like telling that anorexic yes , you're right , you are still fat .

Or telling that young lady that's really overweight that that will not harm their health . That's just the way they are . See , love is very different than kindness . Love is going to go to the truth yes , honey , you really need to eat . Or yes , honey , you really need to lose weight .

However that pans out , because these are self-destructive behaviors and we're all broken . And look at weight and anorexia and drug addictions , all these things , porn addictions , there's infidelity , there's a million different ways , right ? Sin , violence , killing . We're all broken . We all came into a broken world , a sinful world . We all need a savior .

Both instances of these young ladies are visible manifestations of something also going on , in addition to the concupiscence of the flesh , also the concupiscence of the eyes . You know , we see and our senses take this in . You know , the window into our hearts . Something's twisted and distorted down deep , and also the pride of life . How about pride ?

Pride comes in here . I'm too proud to go to the great physician . I'm too proud , as a heavy person , to actually ask for grace to overcome these temptations . And so there's two ways to deal with all these types of things . You know , like anxiety , worry , insecurities , hurt that these women are feeling and many other things .

Worry , insecurities , hurt that these women are feeling and many other things . One of them eats to fill the vacuum that she's feeling inside and the anorexic seeks to take control of her life . It's pride . I can do this . Neither one turns to the great physician to overcome . And actually , christ came to set us free .

I came to bring you to the truth and to set you free . How about the violent ? Another video , sickening video I just saw of six or seven young , a racial it was a racial minority . I'm not going to name them because at this point it doesn't really even matter . It's the violence .

Finding a teen , one single lone teen walking of One , becomes one of those of the six or seven , distracts that teen and another one viciously comes up behind them and viciously sucker , punches them and puts them down on the ground .

And once that young person is on the ground maybe 14 , 15 , 16 , just like a pack of mad dogs or a shark frenzy , savagely attack that young person while they're down , while they're basically semi-unconscious , pick him up , punch him , slam his head into the pavement While he's bleeding profusely . He looks unconscious .

Then he lifts his head just a little bit and as soon as they see that movement , another round of the same thing . It's murder . It's murder . I mean they were seeking to murder this young boy , and why ? Same as above . When you start to think about these issues , how many of them are fatherless , twisting and distorting of our sexuality ?

Again , getting back to , how many of them are godless , how many of them are parts of a culture or we're all victims of this culture that threw God out , disparaged the nuclear family , ruined the schools , with all these sexual ideologies , these gender ideologies and the CRT that divides us racially , like this , where hatred comes back into our hearts DEI huh , oh

my gosh , I could do a whole program on the sickening and distortions of that SEL and further created . You know this is not done . None of this is done by accident . And then how about the welfare state ? Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society , all baloney , all created to formulate a welfare state , socialism , of course , that controls votes , and they did it .

Breaking apart the black family , for one , getting so many of them addicted to freebies right . It's always about two things state-run systems , basically Free stuff , right . And then about what it's about ? Fear . So free stuff and fear . So those are the two ways all through history , totalitarian evil comes into the world .

And now you have poverty so embedded in some of those urban households in Chicago , right here , not far from where I live , and I'm from Chicago originally , who never held a job , it's amazing . So I can go on and on and on with this . Right Now , jesus comes into the story . And what does he do ?

He goes in , he listens , he looks at that person lovingly , like he would at all of these young people , the violent ones , the sick ones , the distorted . We all need a redeemer , and again the young man comes to him . Good , teacher , what must I do to inherit eternal life ? And why do you call me good ? No one is good , but God alone . God is good .

You're looking for the good . Look to God . You're looking for the truth . Look to God . Truth is not a something , truth is a somebody , and his name is Jesus Christ . You look through the beautiful , the beautiful , small b beauty in nature and in us will always lead you to big b B beauty , god himself , who is the source of life and love .

And so that's why Jesus says I am the way , the truth and the life , because I gave you this life . You know , it's amazing how we're so little but we're so full of pride . I mean , you know , when you think about this , what is the great symbol ? Today , out there , we've taken out the American flag , and what kind of flag are we flying now ?

The pride flag , and we make it pride . What it's a whole month ? Now Pride flag is a whole month . It's amazing , isn't it that these people are so out in your face that they're going to do what they're going to take the number one of the seven deadly sins and name their whole , this whole culture , this cult on what ? On pride . It's amazing .

It's the opposite of what God asks us to do , which is humble ourselves of what he actually did on the cross , which is humble himself . But what does Satan do ? Satan says I will not serve , I am too proud to serve , and this is what that flag means . It's a symbol of pride . It's a symbol , of course , distorted sexuality against natural law , nature's law .

I've talked about that so many , so many times , but the big point is , it's about pride , and it's in your face . We are proud , you know . And so all of these things , all this brokenness I'm a porn addict , I'm an alcoholic , I'm an anorexic . I'm too proud , though , to go to the great physician and be healed .

So , again , at this point , the atmosphere of the meeting between the young man and Jesus changes , and why ? Because Jesus said this he goes . Jesus doesn't impose anything , he doesn't come up with the propaganda , some ideology .

He doesn't judge the young man , he doesn't share an opinion with him , a worldview , propaganda and ideology right , he doesn't start a cult with him . Jesus knows something at the level of the man's heart , and what does he say ? He told him to go sell everything , get rid of all of the concupiscence of the eyes , this materialism , this dependence on the world .

You know , open yourself up , you know , so you can overcome concupiscence of the flesh . You know , humble yourself and come , follow me and then you'll see , I am going to take you through the narrow gate and the whole world will be yours . You know , it's amazing because he's going to bring you right with him all the way into eternal life .

Remember how it started out . Good teacher , what must I do to inherit eternal life ? He asked him come , come and see , follow me . But again , at this point of the meeting , the young man . The young man looks down , his countenance fell and he went away , sorrowful , because it says in the scripture , he had many possessions .

Do we not recognize the battle going on in this young man's heart ? Think about young people today . They have many possessions . Young people today have more possessions than the rich man in the Bible . I mean , what did the rich man have , right ? He had good food , some treasures , some gold , probably fine clothes .

These young people have more than all of those things , right ? Yet this rich man , this rich young man , hears an echo in the depths of his heart , even with all the things that he has and young people , this is for you , everything that you have .

There's a depth in your heart and I know this because when I speak to young people , so many are anxious again , depressed , feeling suicidal , all kinds of things . This meeting between Jesus and the young man has a universal and a timeless character , and each one of you , young people , is potentially the one he's speaking to .

So this is a message for me , for you and me . I'm not a young person anymore , but I have a young heart . So , is it to have the latest iPhone ? Is that that's ? That's what's going to make you happy ? Is that your treasure ? What is the meaning and purpose of my life ? You should ask yourself , right , what is the meaning and purpose of my life ?

What's my identity ? Because I'm not going to possess this treasure of youth much longer . Now , that's true about me . I'm a witness to that . Life goes by in the blink of an eye , right ? So , again , I ask you what is the meaning and purpose ? Oh , I got to get the latest iPhone If I only had a car or a better car . I got to find a career .

I got to get to college , get the best college . Well , what's the best college ? We just find out that they're all corrupt Yale , harvard , princeton . I mean these are all corrupted colleges . I mean you probably just remember just recently the presidents of these colleges . What were the three of them ? I think those are probably the three of them .

I know Harvard was there for sure . I mean , these women presidents of these colleges were totally corrupt . It's amazing what happens , you know , and those are the people that you're sending your kids and spending $80,000 a year to get into that college . I mean , when you come out of that college , what are you going to do ?

You're going to demonstrate on college campuses for something you don't know anything about . You got to find wisdom . You got to find Jesus Christ . You know they've thrown out God and now they're trying to make money . Well , you know , at the end of the day , is that it ? Is that enough ? Is that enough for you ? Is that all there is ?

You know , today's professional marketers know young people know you better than you know yourself . They're experts at manipulating your emotions and fueling your desires . They hook you on a phone , social media apps , mass communications that desensitize you to accept what ? Things like pornography , these gender ideologies these are insane , some of these things .

Climate fear oh my gosh , remember what I opened up Two ways to control you either through greed , right Free stuff , or fear , or fear and fear . Oh , the fear mongers are out with their COVID vaccines and their climate hoaxes , and one thing after another . Every day something comes out right , but they want to capture you . They want to capture your hearts .

Video games that obliterate your moral imagination , spread propaganda . Even the government schools are all in on it . Now CRT again , dei SCL , a woman's right to murder her own child . You're taught . How many people live to satisfy harmful or meaningless behaviors ? How many Think about it ?

Even going to worship at the gym now , on Sunday morning , that has itself turned into what An addictive behavior . Today , most people live on the surface of things . They don't go deep . Something seems to be happening to the human heart . Human beings are , by nature , ravenous creatures . We're filled with desires . A famished craving haunts every one of us .

We're created for utter happiness , joy and life , but ever since we lost Eden , we never enjoyed a day of total fullness . We're never filled in any lasting way , never enjoyed a day of total fullness , were never filled in any lasting way .

People have become like cut flowers severed from the vine Grasping for a life and a way to fill the vacuum within their hearts . They become desperate , lustful creatures . We look for marriage , or the hope of marriage , a child , oh .

Then we turn to child porn , food , and then we turn to eating too much or not enough Sex and we turn to all these deviant ways to have sex . Alcohol , which , in the Bible , a little bit of wine is good for you . But we become addicts and alcoholics and drug addicts . And then we want to slap new labels on us .

I'll be an L , a , g , a , b , a , t , a , q , an , I , a , s , s , plus . They'll never be enough . They'll never be enough , just more and more and more . Why ? Because if the old labels filled you , why would you need any more ? Well , of course they don't , it's so obvious . But we're too full of pride . How about the next dinner out ?

That'll make me happy . The latest phone ? Ooh , I could take better selfies . That'll make me happy . A new car again , anything to touch the ache inside of us ? And how many young people have been untethered from that more within their hearts . Huh , every institution that once provided psychological and moral stability is crumbling , isn't it ?

Marriage , families , church alliances , our universities have rotted from within , as they have our political leaders , government bureaucrats , financial institutions and many in our religious hierarchies . Who trusts any of them anymore ? You certainly can't trust the words coming out of the Vatican . This breakdown adds a kind of unchecked desperation to our ravenous hunger .

Is the truth anywhere ? This is our current condition ravenous , psychologically untethered , increasingly desperate , ready to harm anything that gets in our way , and there appears to be nothing to stop the slide into chaos . The poet WB Yeats says this , and this is in the Second Coming the falcon cannot hear the falconer right . Things fall apart .

The center cannot hold . Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world . When I came back into the Catholic Church after a 20-year absence , I decided to make a study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , the big book about everything Catholic . I grabbed a pad of paper , a pen .

I was ready to take notes on morality and ethics and I opened it up and put my pen down . I was surprised when it began with desire . I was astonished . How had I missed this ? Part one , section one chapter . One begins with desire . No lesson in morality , no talk about sin , no talk about how Christ came to save us .

All these will be addressed in due time . This was first a book about desire , because it was a book about the human heart . The desire for God is written in the human heart . It's in our DNA . What we're speaking about here is just not more information that can be Googled . It begins with the human heart .

The desire for God is written in the human heart because mankind , men and women , are created by God , for God , which means by love and for love . And that's why love . You know , I said don't ever confuse kindness with love . I said don't ever confuse kindness with love . If we love someone , are we kind to them ? Yes , of course we are .

But just because I'm kind to somebody , that's bummed out . My friend , I'm bummed out , I don't feel good Just because I'm kind to them . Is that enough ? No , I need to dig in deeper . I need to be there with them , I need to walk with them , I need to talk with them and I have to love them in the truth . Why are they bummed out ?

Because their wife caught them cheating or whatever it is ? I got to be there and I got to speak the truth and love and love them in the truth , and God never ceases to draw man to himself . Only in this union and communion of love will we find the truth and happiness that we never stop looking for .

That's right out of the catechism , that's number 27 , which is really the beginning of the catechism . Really , the rest is just an intro . I paused to consider these words when a quote I had read some time ago by Carl Jung came into my mind . Carl Jung , if you remember , is the founder of psychoanalysis , along with Sigmund Freud .

I had run across Jung in Psychology 101 in college . I was attracted to his work for some reason right away . Freud , on the other hand , I knew he had one hand in sanity and one hand in insanity , I think . But Carl Jung always seemed to be searching for the truth .

Right Over time I had collected a number of his books and I found the quote I was looking for in Modern man in Search of His Soul .

And this is what it said , however far-fetched it may sound , experience shows that many neuroses are caused by the fact that people blind themselves to their own religious promptings because of a childish passion for rational enlightenment .

The psychologist of today , he writes , ought to realize once and for all that we're no longer dealing with questions of dogma and creed . A religious attitude is an element in psychic life whose importance can hardly be overrated , and it is precisely for this religious outlook that the sense of historical continuity is indispensable .

He went on among all my patients , all of my patients , in the second half of their life , that is to say over the age of 35 years old . There has not been one , not one of my patients , whose problem , in the last resort , was not that of finding a religious outlook on life .

It is safe to say that every one of my patients fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age had given to their followers , and not one of my patients has ever been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook .

He would go on to address all these different disorders that he would come up with , and he added this there's nothing that can free us from this bond , this bond of disorders , except the opposite urge of life , the Spirit capital . S it's not the children of the flesh but the children of God who know freedom , end quote .

Isn't that amazing From one of the fathers of psychoanalysis . Who's looking back now when he wrote this ? A Modern man in Search of His Soul . He's getting older , he's looking back on his practice and he wants to know why do people come to me ? I'm famous , people come from all over the world . And who was I really able to help ?

And this is how he summed it up . So I went back to the catechism and I read this number 28 , the next one . In many ways , throughout history down to the present day , men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior , in their prayers , sacrifices , rituals , meditations and so forth .

These forms of religious expression are so universal that one may well call man a religious being . St Augustine , who was once a worldly man , even a womanizer , he'd never married the mother of his only child , a son . Yet as he sought to make a name for himself , he went out into the world .

His heart sought something more , over and over and over again In his search . One day he heard St Ambrose preaching , was drawn to the words of the gospel , or more accurately , to the Word capital W the person of Jesus Christ . He would later write you have made us for yourself , o Lord , and our hearts are restless until they rest in you .

You know my heart breaks every time I listen to a detransitioner tell their story . A detransitioner , right , someone who thought they were trans , which is impossible anyways . This is the young woman , prisha Mosley I've talked about her before who decided that she was suffering from various disorders and thought if she became a man she would be happy .

I mean , it's amazing how your mind gets twisted and distorted . Prisha Mosley began socially transitioning to be perceived as a boy at 15 years old . At 17 , she started testosterone injections to masculinize her body . At 18 , she underwent elective plastic surgery to remove both breasts . Now , at 24 , mosley is back to living as a woman .

She has broader shoulders , though narrow masculine hips . Don't forget she started this at 15 . She started to want to become a boy at 15 . She was still maturing at 17 when she started these injections of testosterone , so she ended up with narrower , more masculine looking hips , hair growth on her body and face and has a permanently lower voice .

Today she's sharing her story , helping to save others from her mistakes . She said , looking back , I was so clearly not well . She said I was so unstable I literally didn't want to be alive . I just don't understand how , at that young age , plus not being with reality , I can make those decisions which would change my life forever . I can't believe it .

What is it and what is in for the doctors ? Why would they do this to me ? Did they genuinely think that they were helping , and there's no research to back it up ? Or is it just about the money , she wonders as Prisha continues to heal and attempts to reverse the damage that hormones and surgery cause ? Mosley said this .

She's considering all her options , including legal action against her providers . They really made me into a lifelong medical patient , she said . Because of her transition , she went back and she's now left . She said to accept the scraps of the life I could have had . I am now left to accept the scraps of the life I could have had and mourn what's gone .

The trans community tells you to kill your old self . It's your dead name , she said . Literally , I feel like I killed a child and that child was me Teacher . What good must I do to have eternal life ?

Hearing a story like Precious , it's hard not to get angry at those who would not protect her for your blood , not to boil at the thought of so-called medical experts . All these medical experts huh , go to medical school for all this time and do what ? It's amazing . Evil in people's hearts , huh . And we do these in the school systems .

First we get kids twisted and distorted by pornography and these gender ideologies , and then the doctors play the game all for money . Pharmaceutical companies they love it . Planned Parenthood love it .

They're all in the money-making game , all just preying on these young people in such a vulnerable time in their life , surgically removing body parts and destroying healthy tissue . It's amazing . Dr Patrick Lampert , who testified in federal court . He's a well-known plastic surgeon .

He said this violates one of the most fundamental principles of plastic surgery Do no harm , right ? It's a Hippocratic oath . When we're not anchored in the truth , when we do not live out of the truth , people get hurt . Pritchard was one of those many victims .

When she asked for answers , she was made a victim of an ideology , currents of thought and belief which detach human freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to the truth and the dignity of what it means to be an individual human person . Pope Benedict XVI called the moral confusion that permeates our culture today the dictatorship of moral relativism .

Not just moral relativism , but moral relativism that's now pushed down from every single facet . It wants to totally take over and dictate like a dictator , a tyrant , to take control of your heart and your life , to destroy you at the end . Then someone came to him .

That was the young man whom Matthew's gospel does not name , because we can recognize every person who , consciously or not , approaches Christ , the Redeemer of man , and questions him about morality . For the young man , the question is not so much about rules to be followed , but about the meaning , the full meaning , of life .

This is in fact the aspiration of the heart of every human decision and action , the quiet , searching and interior prompting that sets freedom in motion . This question is ultimately appealed to the absolute good which attracts us and beckons us . It's an echo of a call from God , who is the origin and goal of man's life .

Jesus says why do you ask me about what is good ? There is only one who is good . What good must I do to have ? Eternal life can only be found by turning one's mind and heart to the One capital O-N-E who is good . No one is good , but God alone . Only God can answer the question about what is good , because he is the good .

To ask about the good , in fact , ultimately means to turn toward God . The fullness of goodness . Jesus shows that the young man's question is really a religious question and the goodness that attracts him , at the same time obliges man , has its source in God and indeed is God himself .

All right , hey , listen , I had to get a little heavy on you , because this is the reality that we're facing , isn't it ? With the young people today in the culture ? But don't be afraid , john Paul would say often , you know , do not be afraid .

In fact , the gospel , or the scriptures , not just the gospel , the scriptures all throughout , use that one phrase more than any other phrase in the Bible be not afraid . Or do not be afraid some version of that ? All right , don't forget , I'll keep you in my prayers . Please keep me in yours . God bless you . Thanks for joining me . Everyone .

Talk to you again soon , bye-bye .