I am in the Rocky Mountains . I hope you're doing well . There's something about nature isn't there , that's just you can't get , you can't find this awe and wonder . I don't think like you can . In nature , of course , there's art and there's music and there's all kinds of things , all reflection of something of God .
But there's something about the mountains and how the weather comes in when you're high up in the mountains .
I'm in a mountain home and across from me I'm up high , and across from me there's a small lake and then , going up on the other side , even higher , with some snow still on it , is another mountain peak and it's amazing beauty as the clouds come in and out and you have these patches of rain and then it clears up and then you see animals and then the sun
hits again and you're reminded how the power of nature can just roll in and roll out and change everything . I walked out this morning and just breathed in this cool , fresh mountain air and , ooh , it does something good for you , right , it really does something good , and it's all a reflection of something of God . God's imagination put this all together .
We came into a world . We didn't create the universe . I wasn't the author of this big story . We came into a world . We didn't create the universe . I wasn't the author of this big story . We came into a story and it's our job . It's our task as human beings given reason and intellect and free will to figure out that story .
We're free , but we have to figure out the story and in our hearts we seek the truth , don't we ? What is the truth of life ? We seek the truth , don't we ? What is the truth of life ? Jesus said I came that they may have life and have it in abundance . John 10.10 , huh , I arrived recently at a friend's lake home . It was a beautiful day .
I was greeted at the door by a young woman , his daughter's college roommate , who was up along with some friends to enjoy a long weekend on the water . She introduced herself to me as Jenny and we spent a few minutes talking about the drive up and her family before I walked in to greet everybody else .
After a day on the lake we had a lot of fun skiing , et cetera . We all gathered for wood-grilled steaks and a beautiful bottle of wine outside .
I love bantering with young people and at some one point the conversation drifted to the young people there's about four or five of them their thoughts on experiences on dating relationships , hookups , the gender ideology so prevalent on today's campuses . You know I ask some probing questions .
I mean this is what I do with the John Paul Tourino Center get them just to open up right and banter a little bit about these things , about love , about happiness . And I had them going deeper and I found plenty of opportunities to share snippets of John Paul II's theology of the body , other things .
It was an enjoyable conversation , one that revealed many of the misconception and confusion that's part and parcel of today's culture . Later that evening , as we carried logs over to the outdoor fireplace , my friend turned to me and said his daughter shared that after dinner Jenny had told her that she seemed to have lost her identity .
She no longer knew who she was as a person . Jack , he said , it's a confusing time for so many young people . What's that expression that you often repeat from Gaudium Espes ? I replied . When God is forgotten , however , the creature itself grows unintelligible . We no longer know who we are , isn't it true ?
Amazing , but one doesn't have to look very far to see a world spinning out of control and a culture circling the drain . In so many ways , god has been systematically taken out of our country , our culture , our marriages , our families and out of the individual human heart .
So if God has been forgotten , would we not expect the creature human beings to grow unintelligible ? If our story being created by God was true ? Of course , as fate would have it , the next morning Jenny came out on the deck where I was .
I got up earlier than everybody else and I made myself a cup of coffee , watching the spectacular sunrise over the lake , the clouds reflecting a magnificent magenta with wisps of gray inside them . You know , when you see those colors of magenta and a little bit of gray , along with the songbirds , it was really magical .
And after a few minutes , jenny standing there looking out . I said , jenny , to think that the day you were born , you arrived onto the stage , exploded into being at a particular place , in a particular time , into a world that you didn't create , into a story that you didn't write .
In fact , as a newborn infant , you were totally dependent on others to sustain you , food , clothes , a home and , regardless of the exact circumstances , you were no accident .
In fact , you were brought into the midst of a larger story , not as a mere spectator , but as one who is offered a role to play and the lens for understanding who you are , your identity , the meaning and purpose to your life . Your role includes the knowledge of everything about you , includes the knowledge of everything about you .
It is to begin to see the drama of your life and all of creation as a love story . It doesn't seem like it always does it A lot of evil in the world , but there's a reason for that too . But this is a love story and it's always been a love story .
God's plan is that as you grow and develop , from infancy on that , you pick up the tools and the skills to play a vital role in this love story , to be a student of love . You will come to know that the story is inscribed in your heart and it's stamped in your very body . As male and female , you were made for love , and here's the danger .
The culture you grew up in has lost its story , and so it's lost sight of everything that's true , good and beautiful , especially the truth and beauty of love . It screams forget about God , the church and the Bible , and this is where the love story often takes a bad turn . Clearly something has gone wrong .
We've become untethered from our own hearts , from our own identity , the meaning and purpose of our lives . How many young people today are living like cut flowers , disconnected from the source of life and love itself , blown around by the spirits of the age ? You grew up in a very toxic culture , jenny . Who's protecting your heart ? Who's mentoring your heart ?
Who's nurturing it ? You grew up in an anti toxic culture , jenny . Who's protecting your heart ? Who's mentoring your heart ? Who's nurturing it ? You grew up in an anti-human culture . You don't realize that . I don't think in so many young people . There's two opposing forces at work here , and the stake is your heart . They're after your heart .
Do you follow the truth or lies , good or evil , beauty or those in the culture that would like the profane beauty , especially the truth and beauty of love ? See , this is an attack on who we are .
How many young people growing up at a time when pride is celebrated for a whole month and pride flags are everywhere have no clue that there's a raging battle being fought for their hearts ? St Peter writes Humble yourselves , therefore , under the mighty hand of God . Cast all your anxieties on him , for he cares about you . Be sober , be watchful .
Your adversary , the devil , prowls around like a roaring lion , seeking someone to devour Jesus . Who knows the human heart all too well , takes on a body , walks through the main door and proclaims in the beginning it was not so . And he goes on to offer himself as the solution . I read John 10.10 . I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly .
But here's the whole verse . It describes these two opposing forces . Jesus says this in just one verse . The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy . I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly . To give this life is the real object of Jesus's mission . He is the one who has come down from heaven and gives life to the world .
Thus can he truly say he who follows me will have the light of life . You see , jenny , we are called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of our earthly existence , because it consists in sharing the very life of God . But , jenny , we have rejected God , haven't we ?
And so we've lost our identity , we've lost our purpose , we've lost our very meaning . Today , this proclamation of Jesus calling us into eternal life , calling us into oneness with him , calling us into union and communion with him , to understand that we are beloved children of God . See , today it's especially pressing , especially for young people .
Because of the extraordinary increase in gravity of threats to life of individuals and people , especially where life is weak and defenseless , we have to open up our eyes to the reality . There's new threats , especially against children . They're emerging on an alarmingly vast scale . Look it abortion is now a right , a human right to kill a child .
Euthanasia has been extended not only to the old but to the young . Pornography in the public school system , purposely robbing the young of their innocence , twisting and distorting their creation . These gender ideologies rendering them sterile , mutilating their very bodies .
Today , there's 60 million adult survivors of childhood sex abuse in the United States , one out of every four women , one out of every six men . More and more children growing up without a biological mother or father in the home . Today we have a Supreme Court justice who's unable to describe what a woman is . Men . Claiming to be women is accepted as normal .
We live in an age of moral relativism that's normalized sin , normalized the fall , and your heart knows that . So you lose your identity . Where do you connect ? Where people are treated today as mere instruments of gain . Pornography , addiction and a contraceptive mentality are a direct attack on a marital act . As reciprocal , self-giving and love-giving unions .
Love has been reduced to a feeling and further reduced to a hedonistic pursuit of self-satisfaction . All these things and others are infamies . Indeed , they poison human society . They're a supreme dishonor to the creator . And then they twist and distort your human heart .
Let me give you just a little background here on our culture and what's happening to the human heart . So you grew up in a culture and the origins of history , as every believer knows , are found in the book of Genesis . Likewise , the origins of culture are traceable to that same source .
You see , everything is contained in these simple words , jenny , when you're trying to find yourself and understand yourself . We're different than all the other creatures out there . No other creatures are out there the deer or the black bear in the mountains . Here . They're not trying to understand their identity . They are who they are .
Only human beings are out searching for identity , meaning and purpose , the whys , to gain knowledge of what kind of a world that we come into and how do we fit in . This is what the whole thing about growing up is . Everything's contained in these simple words from Genesis 2 , verse 7 .
The Lord , god , formed man of the dust just like everything else , jenny , we're taken from . You know , we have the same biological structure basically as the animals and stuff around as a gorilla or a chimp , but , but , but , but something very different happens here , right ?
So the Lord , god , formed man of the dust from the biological substance huh , from the ground , it says and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life , and man became a living being . See , jenny , you took your DNA from your parents and God allowed them to participate and bring an eternal being called Jenny into this world and into eternal life .
You're an eternal being . You're going to be with God forever . You're an eternal son or daughter of God . That's your basic identity and he breathed this into you that moment of conception . God breathed the soul into you , jenny . God breathed that soul into you . When you reject God or you don't know about God , what happens ?
You have a body and a soul , but the default position on that is what ? Sin and death . Sin and death . This is what you look around and you see the world . Now we need a body and a soul connected with grace , connected with this Ruach , the spirit that God blew in . The decision by the creator was unlike this .
Decision by the creator was unlike any other , whereas in creating other beings , god simply said let there be , let there be , and it was good . It was good . In this one case it's as if he goes back into himself and he takes a selfie . And he says he takes a selfie of the Trinity and this Trinitarian love story he wants to project into the created world .
And what does he do ? He says it right in Genesis , chapter 1 , verse 26 . Let us make man in our image , according to our likeness , and the biblical author goes on to say so . God created man in his image , in the image of God . He created them , male and female . He created them .
God blessed them and said to them be fruitful , multiply , fill the earth and subdue it . Ah , here's the culture , huh , here's the culture . On the sixth day of creation , god saw everything that he was made in was very good . We find these words in the first chapter in the book of Genesis and then in the second chapter .
It goes into our experience of that story . This is the early sign , this is the early culture huh , that we're to be filled with divine life and love and then bring this into the whole wide world . But then sin came , didn't it Original sin ? Jesus says in the beginning it was not . So all this sin ?
Remember when the Pharisees came up to Jesus this is in Matthew 19, . And they asked Jesus is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cost ?
And he said have you not read that he who made them from the beginning and he's pointing back to Genesis that I just read made them male and female , and for this reason , a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife , and the two shall become one . So they were no longer two but one . What , therefore , god has joined together ?
Let no man put asunder . And they said to him why did Moses allow us to have divorce in the Old Testament ? And Jesus said ooh , because of the hardness of your hearts , moses allowed you to divorce your wives , but from the beginning it was not so . See , jesus is the author of life .
He walks into the story and he knows there's a disconnection , he knows there's a separation , he knows that sin has come into the world and our reason is very often unreasonable when it's not connected with grace . You know , our intelligence is darkened . Our free will is almost taken from us by evil . We give it , of course .
We give it away , we give our free will away and we become like that frog in a proverbial pot , only not filled with water but filled with moral relativism . Right , and Jesus takes us back to the objective sign of man , created in the image and likeness of God . And then chapter two man's subjective experience of that sign .
In the beginning let's turn our attention to this later . One , the experience of it . And these are three original experiences , jenny , of mankind before original sin . And we have these three experiences solitude , original unity , original nakedness . And so you hear god say and the lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden , to till it and keep it .
See , this is the beginning of culture . Go out , go out , bring this divine life and love all through creation . The lord commanded the man , saying you may freely eat of every tree of the garden , but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat , for the day that you eat of it you shall die .
Then the Lord God said it's not good that the man should be alone . I'm going to make a helper fit for him . You see , jenny , this is in our heart already to be persons of love . So out of the ground , the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air , and they brought them to the man to see what he would call them .
And whatever the man called every living creature , that's what his name was . So the man gave names to the cattle , to the birds of the air , to the beasts of the field . But here it is , jenny , for the man , there was no helper fit for him because there was no person there , right ?
No other person that God blew that ruah , that spirit that made us different , no other person that God blew that ruah , that spirit that made us different . Original solitude here . Original solitude , it's not that the man , adam , was lonely , it's that he was different than all the rest of creation . See , he wasn't alone .
The animals were around , creation was around , but there was no person for him . He's trying to understand this now . What is love ?
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept he took one of his ribs , closed its place with flesh , and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man , he made into a woman and brought her to the man . Then the man said , in awe and wonder this that lasts as the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh .
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man . Therefore , a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh . And the man and his wife were both naked , but they were not ashamed . You know , let's place ourselves in this story as Adam , meaning mankind , could be any of us .
The woman , eve had not been yet created . Man was placed in the garden , a place of awe and wonder and beauty , a place given to man as a gift , who was in turn given a task to till and keep it . This is just the inkling of the start of culture .
At this point , man , in original solitude , adam , discovers that he possesses reason , intellect , free will , making him different than all the rest of creation . Right possesses reason , intellect , free will , making him different than all the rest of creation . Right .
He becomes conscious of his own superiority and what it means to have dominion not domination much different over the rest of creation . We're supposed to keep until the garden . The only stipulation is what he's not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , for if he does , sin and death will enter . This is what we do , jenny .
We all , in a sense , came into the story and we stood at this tree and we have to decide what opposing force do we take , the one of good or the one of evil ? The one of truth or the one of lies and falsehoods ? The one of beauty or the one that would like to profane and twist beauty ?
Lies and falsehoods the one of beauty or the one that would like to profane and twist beauty . See , satan wants to create his own anti-creation , but then God gives the man another task here to name the animals . In naming them , he discovers what ? That he's superior to all the other bodies , even in the garden . But there's no helper fit for him .
There's no person among the animals . The man did not find a help similar to himself , genesis says . The whole part of the text is undoubtedly a preparation for the account of the creation of Eve , of woman . Nevertheless , it also has its own deep meaning , independent of this creation . Thus the created man , each of us .
Jenny , you find yourself in the moment of your existence , before God , in search of your own being , as it were . Your search for identity is a true one . See , your heart is telling you something One could say in search of your own definition . Today , one would say , in search of your own identity .
See , what we have discovered in our solitude before God is what ? That we are persons , creatures of a rational nature . That we are self-conscious and possess self-determination , that is , free will . That it's not good for us to be alone . That we have been created in the image and likeness of God and we have a relationship with him .
Unlike the rest of creation , we're a partner of the absolute , called into a relationship with him . In rest of creation , we're a partner of the absolute , called into a relationship with him inasmuch as we must consciously discern and choose between good and evil , between life and death .
The words of God's command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil speaks directly about the submission and dependence of mankind , right of man , the creature , on the creator . We were never supposed to be disengaged . We were always supposed to say yes .
God created us in love , by love for love , gave all of this as a gift to us , asked us to participate as a partner with the absolute . In our solitude , man , kind again , man and woman is at the same time set into a unique , exclusive and unrepeatable relationship with God himself . See , this is where it all starts , jenny .
This is where your identity needs to connect . As such , we are created for love . John Paul said in his first encyclical , redemptor Hominis , man cannot live without love . He remains a being that's incomprehensible for himself .
His life is senseless if love is not revealed to him , if he does not encounter love , if he does not experience it , make it as known , if he does not encounter love itself . See , it should be obvious to modern man that something has gone wrong and that his reason itself has become very unreasonable .
He's living in disconnection , it seems , from his own spirit , and this has severed him from reality and the truth of things , especially the truth of the human person , the truth of love . See , reason . Our reason always seeks the truth . It makes us a spiritual being and makes us unique among all of the rational creatures .
Reason is more than forming sentences , solving equations or analyzing math problems . The power to reason is the power to grasp reality . Jenny , what is the truth ? What is real ? John Paul talked about this so often . Right , the reception of information , of data , doesn't come first . Our consciousness does not come first . What comes first is the power to reason .
We're given the power to reason . It's rooted in the soul and it's not reducible to a machine or to information . This is something very spiritual . Our soul itself has got reason , intelligence , the free will is starting to be formed in there , but it needs to be connected to God , who is the good .
When we disconnect from God , we get blown around by the spirit of the age . Right , okay , let me end like this , jenny . This is just to get you to start to think . You know what's your identity . Your identity is a beloved son or daughter of God . Open your heart to that . You'll find your identity .
You'll be filled with divine life and love and you'll be able to then turn around and give it . That's the meaning and purpose of our life to become a person of love . It's really the two great commandments in one , as Jesus gave it . Love God with all your heart and then love others . Right Love others . Karnak of Phara said this .
There's a point in John's Gospel where Jesus says when I am lifted up from the earth , I will draw all people to myself . See the earth . The world has this force of evil unleashed in it in original sin . This force is powerful . It wants to take and destroy . It wants to create an anti-creation .
We're seeing that in the culture now Kill children , twist and distort this Imago Dei right , the very place where children come from . If Satan can take that out and create an anti-creation , he can destroy us . We're the Imago Dei , the image and likeness of God .
Satan hates human beings because he hates God , but he can't get to God , so he's going to create havoc among us , isn't it ? So Jesus comes back into the story with power . And what does he say ? He says when I am lifted up from the earth , I will draw all people to myself . This is the sacrifice that Jesus is going to make .
He's going to take your body , my body , in a sense , unite it with his body right , jesus' body , blood , soul , and unite it with divinity , with God . And now he takes this on in his own body , as we were in the very beginning , before sin , adam and Eve created to be an expression of God's love in the world , but we were linked to God himself .
This was just a flow from God to us and then to each other and back to God again . This was a beautiful story , but we've become like cut flowers , and so the whole world . In 1 , john says the whole world is under the power of the evil , one who wants to twist and distort . But Jesus says I am going to take that on .
I am going to take on sin and death . I'm going to give you the power , then , to overcome this . I'm going to offer this to the Father and then we're going to pour this out to you . See , reading these divine words gives us a perfect awareness of what's really happening in the world , a story that you have to understand , jenny Within .
The human story , considered in its depths as this , the human story is a confrontation between two forces the force of attraction , whose source is in the wounded heart of the crucified , risen one , and the power of Satan , who does not want to be ousted from his kingdom . And the area in which this confrontation takes place is in the human heart .
It is human liberty . And the confrontation has two dimensions an interior dimension and an exterior dimension . So , again , it starts in your own heart . But then we manifest this where , in the culture , we go out and the way we go out ? Do we bring truth or lies ? Do we bring good or evil ? Do we bring beauty or do we profane that beauty ?
Do we understand that love is not a feeling , it's not a sexual act ? This engaged from the authentic love itself . But it's a gift . It's willing the good of another person , it's giving your life to another person . This is what marriage and the family is . But it all starts with the human heart connected to God .
So I can be filled , so I have something to give away . At the trial before Pilate , the governor asked Jesus whether he is a king , whether which is the meaning of Pilate's question he is true and sovereign political power , whether he has political power right over a given territory . Has he come in to take power ?
Jesus says you say that I'm a king For this , I was born for this . I came into the world to testify to the truth . Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice . Jesus wants us to understand , you see , that his kingdom and his kingship is not of the kings of this world , but consists of obedience of his subjects to his word , to the truth .
Although he reigns over all of us , it is not through force , right or power , but through the truth of which he is witness , which all who are of the truth receive with faith . See , it's the truth , that's the power . When we seek the truth , we are drawn to christ . When I am lifted up from the earth , I will draw all people . That's the truth .
The truth is not a something . The truth is a somebody . Love is not a something . The truth is a somebody . Love is not a something . Love is a somebody , and he takes this upon himself , right . St Thomas Aquinas puts the following words into the mouth of our Savior as I myself manifest truth , so I am preparing a kingdom for myself and for you .
Jesus on the cross attracts everyone to himself because it is on the cross that the truth of which he is witnessed is resplendent . Jesus gives up his body . This is my body , given for you . That's an act of love .
Yet this force of attraction can only take effect on those who are from the truth , that is , on those who are profoundly available to the truth , who love truth , who live in familiarity with the truth . This is in your heart . Who am I ? You're seeking the truth of that . He holds the entire world under its sway .
The Satan himself , instead , dominates through lies . Jesus says to Satan he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him . When he lies , he speaks according to his own nature . He is a liar and the father of lies . The wording is dramatic .
The first proposition he was a murderer from the beginning is explained by the second . And he does not stand in the truth . See , the murder which the devil performs consists in his not standing in the truth , not dwelling in the truth .
It is murder because he's seeking to extinguish , to kill in the heart of man truth , the desire for truth , by inducing men , men and women , again to unbelief . He wants man to close himself to the light of the divine revelation , which is the word incarnate . But there , jenny , you'll never find your identity if you reject God .
Therefore , these words of Jesus on Satan , as today , we speak about this all the time when we're searching for the truth , they don't speak of the fall of angels . They speak of something far more profound , something frightful . Satan constantly refuses the truth and this action within human society consists in opposition to the truth .
Isn this action within human society consists in opposition to the truth ? Isn't that what we see today ? A man could be a woman . Well , that's a lie . This whole trans ideology , it's a lie . We're telling little kids that they can become something that they cannot be . What is this ? It's satanic . Satan is this refusal , he is this opposition to the truth .
The text continues because there's no truth in him . The words of Jesus go to the deepest root of Satan's work . He is himself a lie . From his person , truth is completely absent and hence he , by definition , is the one who opposes truth . Isn't that what we see ? A baby's not a baby . We can kill a baby in the womb . We have the right to do that .
Marriage has no meaning and purpose . It could be between anything or everything . That's a lie . Jesus adds immediately afterwards when he speaks , he speaks according to his own nature , for he's a liar and the father of lies .
When the Lord speaks according to his own nature , he introduces us to the interiority of Satan , to his heart , a heart which lives in darkness and shadows , a house without doors , without windows . To summarize this , therefore , is what's happening in the heart of us ? Jesus ? The revelation of the Father exerts a strong attraction to himself .
The revelation of the Father exerts a strong attraction to himself . Satan works against this to neutralize the attractive force of the crucified , risen one . The force of the truth which makes us free acts on the human heart . It is the satanic force of the lie which makes slaves of us .
You see , the first liberation we should be looking for is liberation from sin , yet not being pure in spirit . The human person is not solely interiority . It starts in the human heart , right , but human interiority then is expressed and manifested in the construction of the society in which he or she lives .
Human interiority is expressed and manifested in culture as an essential dimension of human life . As such , culture is the mode of living which is specifically human . Given that man is positioned between these two opposing forces , the condition which he finds himself must necessarily give rise to two different cultures .
We have the culture of life , which is the truth , and the culture of death , which is the lie . See , this is the whole book . I'm going to end with this . There's the last book of the Bible , huh . The Apocalypse , or the book of Revelation , describes the final confrontation between these two kingdoms .
In this book , the attraction of Christ takes the form of triumph over enemies commanded by Satan . It is a triumph which comes after a lengthy combat . This is what we're in , jenny . This is the battle that you came into your heart . You're in touch with your heart . Don't be afraid of that Search for the truth .
And the first fruits of the victory are the martyrs that we've had through the ages . The great dragon serpent of the victory are the martyrs that we've had through the ages .
The great dragon serpent of the prime of age , he , whom we call the devil or Satan , seducer of the whole world , was flung down to earth , but they , the martyrs , overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of the testimony of their martyrdom . See , this is the early church , wasn't it the early church that witnessed to Jesus Christ ?
They were attacked , they were censored , they were even killed . Is this not what's happening today , jenny ? There's a real battle going on , but we're not here very long , are we ? And we have to search for the truth . We have to use our intelligence to understand it .
Always ask what is the truth of things and then , when you know , your will becomes like a motor to the good . Do good , huh , be filled with divine life and love and then become divine life and love in the world . Okay , that's enough . Think about that a little bit and when we have dinner tonight , if you have any questions , let's go a little deeper .
God bless you . Talk to you soon . Bye .