Co-Redemptrix & Obedience

Thank you very much, and you're welcome very much. This is the third TikTok live out of I think it's the third out of the four that I promised to do. I promised to do one every week for the next month. I think this is the third one. Tonight, we're talking about coredemptrix and the church's recent ruling that Catholics should shy away from that not shy away, should not use that term any longer.

And we're also going to talk about, related to that, the importance of obedience in Catholic life. It's not optional, man. Obedience is part of the game. Get with it. In case you didn't know, let me fill you in.

Recently, I forget the name of the document, doesn't matter. Oh, by the way, let me just take care of some business first. This is technically an episode of a podcast that I call Fire Branded. And I've kind of been calling this, like, the fire brand forum, but it's technically an episode of a podcast that I'm, at least for now, calling fire branded. It's carried on every podcast network, and it's also carried on Stoking the Embers.

If you go to stokingembers.com, you will find it. So there's that. Stokingembers. Come check me out. Stokingembers.com. That's stokingembers. That's my headquarters, man. It's stoking the embers on Substack. Stokingembers.com. Check me out.

Follow me everywhere on socials at real t j haynes. Now, let's get on with it. I don't remember the name of the document. I don't have my computer in front of me, So you just have to trust me. A document was recently released by the, not the congregation, by the the church's doctrine office instructing Catholics or or directing Catholics to no longer use the term co redemptrix when talking about the blessed virgin Mary.

What's that all about? Co redemptrix, for those who don't know, is basically a theological descriptor. It is not a title. Mother of God is a title for the blessed virgin Mary. Queen of angels and saints is a title for the blessed virgin Mary.

Immaculate conception is a title for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Co Redemptrix has never been a title for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has always been used as a theological descriptor, a way of talking about the Blessed Virgin Mary. The theology behind co redemptrix is very simply this. The blessed virgin Mary cooperated in a unique way with Christ's work of the for the redemption of man.

She cooperated co redemptrix. The concern of the church today is that the term coredemptrix can be confusing because it does seem to put Mary on par with Jesus, and Jesus is the only redeemer. I can tell you from my experience, there are Catholics who use that term incorrectly. There are Catholics who do see Mary as being on par with Jesus. That's not what co redemptrix is supposed to mean, but that's what they take from it.

And for reasons such as that, when the church is advising, directing Catholics to no longer use that term. The church has not changed, modified, or diminished the theology behind the term that Mary participated and cooperated in the redeeming work of Christ through her unique role as mother of God, and so on and so on. The church has not diminished or erased that. The church has not said that's no longer true. In fact, the church just recently in that same document, or I I don't remember if it was in the document, but recently in its announcement of the document, the church reaffirmed that theology.

So the church didn't change anything. All the church has done is said, we are not going to elevate this to a title. It's only a theological descriptor, folks. It has it has never been a title. The church has said, we're not elevating this to a title, and we suggest you stop using this term completely, because it's confusing.

It's no longer helpful, the church has said. It's actually confusing to people who don't have a background in theology, which is most Catholics. By the way, folks, if you enjoy my lives, please tap like, please share them, please spread the word about what I'm doing here because, really, it's me against the algorithm, and every algorithm on every platform is very, very harsh to me. So, if you share it, if you tap like, if you and so on and so on, if you engage with it, you'd really be helping me a lot. Okay.

So, co redemptrix. Theological descriptor, not a title. It has never been a title, and the church said it will not make it a title. Why? Why won't the church just make it a title and make people happy? I'll tell you why. For the church to establish a title for the blessed virgin Mary, the church is saying this is part of the nature of the blessed virgin Mary. It's not just something she does. It is part of her nature. That's what a title is.

A title is not just an honor that we give the blessed virgin Mary or anybody else. The church is saying this is part of her nature, such as mother of God, such as immaculate conception, and so on. This is part of her nature. In order to declare that, the church has to say this is a truth of her nature. This is.

It's not an honor. We are declaring a truth. In order to declare a truth, that's a pretty big deal from the perspective of the church to declare something as a truth. In order to do that, there has to be a doctrinal declaration, and again, in a in such a case, the church is saying this is not just an honor we're giving the blessed mother. We are asserting that this is a truth of her nature.

Okay? That's big. And so the church has to have evidence for establishing this as a truth. That evidence has to come from scripture or sacred tradition. But that evidence is not in scripture or sacred. There is no evidence in scripture or sacred tradition that supports Mary's nature being coredentrics. In fact, Mary places herself below the Lord. I am the handmaid of the Lord. She's talking about she's not just talking about the father. She's talking about god, father, son, and holy spirit.

That is the lord. So Mary places herself below god. The church then looks at that and says, well, we can't call her co redemptrix if she herself put herself beneath God. So and pope pope Benedict the sixteenth said this pretty explicitly. There is no support for this title in sacred tradition, and there is no support for this title in scripture.

Benedict said that. One of the most potent theological minds of of of the church history. Okay? A rock star theologian. So the church is not saying the theology is not true.

The church has reaffirmed that Mary cooperated in the minute mission of Jesus Christ. Right, and folks, servants cooperate with their bosses, their masters, whatever. Servants cooperate, that doesn't make them equals. Okay? The church reaffirmed all of the theology that the popes have talked about, the saints have talked about when talking about Mary as coredemptrix, all of that theology, none of it has changed.

The church has reaffirmed all of it. But the church is saying we cannot say coredemptrix is the nature of the blessed virgin Mary. That's what a title would be declaring. Okay? Some people have taken this as a snub of the blessed virgin Mary. I don't know why. Some people have seen this as a demotion of the blessed virgin Mary. I don't know why. Co redemptrix has never been her title. Some people are seeing this as as an attack by the church on the blessed virgin Mary.

So people are rushing to defend the blessed virgin Mary from the Catholic church. That's where we're at. They're defending the blessed virgin Mary from the mystical body of her son, an assault launched by the magisterium of the church, which carries the authority of her son. That's the state of the church today, my friends. That there are people who believe that.

So, to sum that first part up, let me just say it again. Coredemptrix is not a title because to declare a title, you are declaring a truth of the nature of the blessed virgin Mary. There has to be evidence, strong evidence for that. Because when when the church declares the truth, the church is declaring this is so, and it will never change. Because truth doesn't change.

So it's a high standard. It's a high bar of establishing that truth. So there has to be evidence for it in sacred tradition, and or evidence for it in in sacred scripture, and there it doesn't exist. As as far as the magisterium is concerned, and the previous three popes have have said that also. Pre previous two. No, wait. Benedict, Francis. So the previous two. Benedict, Francis, and now Leo, or Leo's, like, administration has said this. There's no evidence for it.

The theology hasn't changed. The blessed virgin Mary's role has not changed. She has not been demoted. Nothing like that. Okay. Nothing has changed. All the church has said is it we can't make this a title. And the church has said because because this title can be so confusing, Catholics should refrain from using it. Okay? That's the declaration.

The blessed mother has not been demoted. That's the declaration. The second part I wanted to talk to you about By the way, hello, and welcome to those of you who are joining me. I'm not being fooled anymore, by the way. I see all of these people, so and so joined, so and so joined, and I wanna tell them all welcome, but the the names fly by so fast.

But you know what I've learned over the past, I don't know, several months being on this platform doing lives, you know what I've learned? The people who come in generally don't stay. I see now there's a little number there, five. There's five. Now there's four. Somebody just left again. So the all these so and so has entered, so and so has joined, so and so has joined. I'm like so excited and stuff. Then I see over here is like two people. What the hell?

I thought there were like a 100 people in here. But the people who are here, Krav Man, Kristen T, Frank, and Nene. Hello, and thank you for joining me, and thank you for staying. I really appreciate that part. How do I get this out of my face?

There we go. So, if you have anything to say, ask, or offer, please chime in in the chat. If I spot it, and I do look, I do look, if I spot it, I'll get to you. Okay? So the second part I wanted to talk about today, first, I wanna remind you, follow me everywhere at real t j hanes, and check out my my website stoking.

The embers link is in my bio. Now, the second part I wanted to talk about is obedience. A funny thing happened recently. I was on X, real t j hanes on X, same handle as here. I was on X, and I don't remember exactly what the post was that I composed. It was about this topic, coredemptrix. Oh, I remember. Here's what the post basically said. This is almost word for word. Folks, now three popes have said no to elevating coredemptrix as a title.

Just accept that and move on. If you love our lady, then be saints for her son. She will help you. That's what I posted on x. Not too controversial.

Right? Well, you would think if there's controversy in there, people on X will pick that up immediately, and start beating me about the face, right, with their counter counter statements, their counter posts. But I thought, after I dropped this post on X, I thought that's a pretty nice post. Let me bring that over to Substack notes. Substack notes is basically Twitter on Substack.

Except the people are much more civil, it's much calmer, it's much cooler, it's a nicer environment, Substack notes. So I copied that post, not controversial, as as you just heard it. Copied that post, subsect notes, and lord have mercy, you would have thought I was on Twitter all over again. The comment not nothing like rude, like you're an a hole, nothing like that. People on Substack don't kick it that way.

But very aggressively refuting me, because they thought, I mean very aggressively, some of them a little hostile, some of them just a little rude, but not mean. Because they believed the blessed virgin Mary is co redemptrix. That's her title. And then there were a holes on Twitter, I gotta say, who just to snub the magisterium, they were putting up pictures of the blessed virgin Mary saying, Mary, co redemptrix, pray for us. All you're doing is you're trying you're you're very clearly trying to snub the magisterium by using a title that has never been her title.

So what you're really doing is you're disrespecting the blessed mother by disrespecting the magisterium of her son's church, is really what you're doing. But I hope you feel better. Feel better now? Do you? Good.

Good. You just remember that when you face Jesus' judgment, when you let him know that you just had to snub the magisterium of his church. You tell him that. Just make sure you remember you tell him that. So people on Substack notes were very hostile in responding to that non controversial comment.

What followed was basically three days of back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. And what I took from that is this. I already knew we had a problem of obedience in the Catholic populace. I didn't know it was that bad though. It's real bad.

People don't want to be told this is the ordinary majesty this this has the authority of the ordinary magisterium of the church. This is this this has authority. No, it doesn't. It's not infallible. It has authority. This is an authoritative document from the Vatican. It's part of the ordinary magisterium, and that means it has authority, and that means Catholics are required to give their submission to it. Required. That's canon law, and that has always been in the church. Okay?

And then I go out and tell them, here's Lumen Gentium, here's the example of the saints, here's a couple things from Church Fight. I tell them why this is authoritative, and you have to give a cent to it. No, I don't. It's not infallible. Not only do I see these days that the problem of obedience in the church is much deeper than I thought, Might And I I have been around, so I know where the problems are, and what the problems are, and how deep they are.

But this surprised even me. Not only that By the way, wanna remind you, tap like, and follow me for Pete's sake. I do great stuff on here. Okay? So if you're not following me, there's something wrong with you. You gotta follow me, man. You gotta get in on this gravy train. Hit that link in my bio also. Maybe subscribe to my Substack, it's free. If you wanna go deeper than what we can cover on here, on this platform, come hit me up at Substack.

Subscribing there is free. So not only is the problem deeper than I thought, we also have a problem of Catholics so prideful that they refuse to let go to their let go of their error. Even when you tell them here's authoritative documents one through 29 showing that you are incorrect, they insist on holding on to their error. Worse still than even that is the poor arguments made by many a Catholic, period, whether you tell them my core redemptions or anything else. For instance, I'm not going to name names.

They're not even on this platform, but still I don't like naming names. I don't want to embarrass people. But I said this was part of the ordinary magisterium of the church. This person responded with a quote from Saint Thomas Aquinas about how important it is to love the blessed virgin Mary. My friends, does that sound like a counterargument to you?

Here's evidence for why this is a this is an authoritative document. Well, the response was, here's a quote from Thomas Aquinas saying why it's important to love the blessed virgin Mary. And I have to be honest, I don't think Thomas Aquinas actually said that quote. I think that quote that she quoted is from Saint Louis de Montfort. But didn't want to embarrass her, so I didn't say that.

What I said was, I'm giving you theology, you're giving me melodrama and sentiment. You have to break a theological argument with a superior theological argument. It makes me sad that you have to tell that to Catholics. Catholics should already know that. Most Catholics don't have a background in theology, or they have a very limited background in theology.

They may not might not be prepared to make a counterargument. That's fine. That's normal. That's just normal. But then, don't hold on to your errands opinion when the church has already ruled on it. If you're not theologically competent, that's fine. That's normal. But then, don't make claims that require theological competence. You understand? Makes me sad that we have to say that in the church today.

Also, what I didn't wanna tell her was, okay, Saint Thomas Aquinas said it's important to love the blessed virgin Mary. I want In in other words, Saint Thomas Aquinas said it, therefore it should trump what the magisterium has ruled. What I wanted to say was, you realize Thomas Aquinas didn't believe that the blessed mother was immaculately conceived. Right? So what, that Saint Thomas Aquinas?

The one who didn't Now, Saint Thomas the the church had not declared her to be immaculately conceived. So it wasn't a heresy or anything. But Saint Thomas Aquinas had that wrong. Saint Thomas Aquinas changed his opinion later. The point is, it was bad theological methodology on this person's part.

Very bad. Chris Christian says, I keep saying there's another schism brewing. The Rad Trads versus Novus Ordo, both valid masses. So I would go go further than that, Christian. I would say there's a schism happening right now.

It's it's all around us. It's a soft schism in that it's not officially schismatic, but it's a schism. When you have a church developing within the church, a church within the church, that's a schism. Even if they haven't formally broken away from the church, that's a schism. When we're saying, I am a novus ordo Catholic I'm sorry, I am not a novus ordo Catholic, you are a novus ordo Catholic, I am a TLM Catholic, I've got news folks, that's schism.

It's soft schism, but that's schism. When now we have divided one Catholic from the others. That's schism. And that's where we are. And that has been brewing for a couple of decades, at least. Fight. Fight. Fight is asking, how do you feel about Gio Benitez? The answer at at the end of this question, my friend, my answer's gonna be I have no idea, but let me continue. How do you feel about Gio Benitez getting confirmed, and his Oh, I do I actually do know do know about this story.

That's so funny. I didn't know the name, but I know the story. How do you feel about Gio Benitez getting confirmed, in other words receiving the sacrament of confirmation, and his his husband being his sponsor? That's a great question. I would love to talk about that a little bit.

I think this guy was like an ABC News anchor, or something, or a field anchor, something like that. He's gay, he's civilly married, and he just received the sacrament of confirmation, completes his initiation into the Catholic church. Part of that is you need a sponsor, someone in good standing in the faith who says, yes, this person is a qualified Catholic. They're gonna be great. I will watch over their spiritual development.

His so called husband, his civil husband, was his sponsor. It's a gay couple, gay guy getting confirmed, husband is the sponsor. What do I think about that? So I think it's a pastoral nightmare. I think it's a pastoral nightmare since it's a very bad message, but we have to look at this from from the perspective of the church and and divine revelation manifested in church doctrine and even canon law.

Is it wrong for someone in an irregular relationship, whether it's a gay relationship or a straight relationship. Let's say it's a straight man and woman who are civilly married and not sacramentally married. Is it wrong then to baptize or confirm them, objectively speaking? Is it wrong? Might not be wrong.

Is it wrong to this is a different kind of a case, but is it wrong to baptize baptize, it's a different sacrament, baptize a baby with, let's say, two gay parents? Obviously, only one the baby's adopted by a gay couple or only one of the parents is the biological parent, whatever. Baptized baby, parents are gay. Or baptized baby, parents are not married and not even together. Is it wrong to baptize that baby?

Well, no. So what's the problem here with a gay person getting confirmed and his civil husband being the sponsor. First, we have to point out the fact that from the church's perspective and from this perspective of God, there is no such thing as gay marriage. So if you are gay married, you're not married. From the church's perspective, you're just two men.

You are not married. So that's what we have. Let's first of all acknowledge what we have. Now, one of the conditions for receive for receiving the sacrament, at least in baptism, now this guy received confirmation, one of the conditions to receive baptism, one of the four of that imply right disposition, is sorrow for one's sins, and a hope and intent to change. When you're in a gay permanent relationship, like you're married, it's civilly, that does not show an intent.

You First of all, it's it's it's a it's a state of sin from the church's perspective, and it does not show an intent does not show remorse or an intent to change. Right? But this was the sacrament of confirmation. So what is before the church? A baptized Catholic who wants to complete his sacraments of initiation, who's there with another male who is his sponsor.

Does it matter that the person is living in a state of grave or mortal sin? Does it matter from the church's perspective in terms of the person being qualified to receive the sacrament? No. It does not matter. It does not disqualify the person from receiving the sacrament.

What I think should have happened is, I think that, you know, so as to not scandalize the faithful, that really should have happened in private. A private ceremony that should not have happened publicly. That's what I would have changed. But should but from the perspective of doctrine and canon law, what we're seeing is a person living in a state of sin. Does that disqualify them from receiving the sacrament?

No. Is it possible that they are living as as brothers? Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Yes. Is it possible that this person confessed that sin, and expressed a desire to change, but because it's a marriage and it's a long term relationship, I can't just get out of it tomorrow. It requires finesse, it takes time, I don't know. Is it likely? No.

Is it possible? Yes. You don't know what what takes place between this person and their priest or their their confessor. We're not talking about likelihood, we're talking about possibility. So because of their that possibility, we can't bet all our money on the likelihood.

The church is not in the business of betting money on likelihoods. The church has to exercise hope. Right? So we have to look not at what we're see not just at what we're seeing, but we have to acknowledge we can't read minds or hearts, God does. We don't know what's taking place between the person and their priest, or the person and the confessor, Only they know that.

Might the person be defrauding the church by presenting themselves for this sacrament? Yes. That might be the case. But can this person defraud God? No. So at the end of the day, this is gonna be between them and God. Fight Fight Fight is saying they intentionally made it public. I have no idea. You have you may have information I don't have. I didn't really sniff around for a lot more detail.

You might be right. I have no idea. I mean, I guess it would have to be intentionally made public. Otherwise, how else would you make it public? But they should they should have made it a private ceremony, if you ask me. So that's my thoughts on that. There are people saying this is because of Pope Francis. No, this is long existing canon law. This is not Pope Francis. This is long existing canon law.

So, folks, it it is the way it is. This is not the Boy Scouts, and it's not a social club. We deal in a in a sacramental faith, a sacramental church. The sacraments do things. Right? The sacraments function. They do things. Each sacrament does a thing. So when we're asking, is this person qualified or not qualified to receive this sacrament? Well, it depends on what the sacrament does.

Okay? If the person is not in a state that disqualifies them from this sacrament because of what this sacrament does, then they're not disqualified. But people are upset about that. We don't deal with that. We don't deal with how people feel about it. This is a mechanism of mercy. Every sacrament is part of the mechanism of mercy. We deal with reality. The reality of what the sacrament does. And then we question whether this person fits what this sacrament does.

You understand? It might make us feel better to say, no, you can't be confirmed, or no, you can't be baptized. Maybe it'll make people feel better, but we don't deal in that. Right? We don't deal in that economy. We deal in the economy of grace and mercy. That doesn't mean we, you know, we we have so we're so we're so interested in grace and mercy that we just have no rules. Oh, no. We have plenty of rules. We have plenty of canons.

With those things considered, this person objectively speaking, is not disqualified from receiving the sacrament, but I think the pastor should have done it privately. That's my thought on that. My assertion is this, my friends. Obedience is hard. Obedience to anybody is hard because it pushes pushes against our pride, it pushes against our self will, our desire.

Following Jesus was hard. Trusting Jesus was hard for the people who knew and lived with him, not just the apostles, but the other disciples. Now you're saying, but Jesus Christ was God, so that should be easy to follow. Well, they didn't know he was God. Most of the early disciples knew that God was with him because he was performing miracles.

So that verified to them that God was with him. They didn't know he was God. But they knew he was the messiah, but they did not know he was God. So what did the early, disciples see? A prophet, a regular man, and God was with him.

He was an authoritative teacher. He taught with the authority of God as the prophets. God is definitely with him. Being on TikTok feels like you're in a nightmare film about being in post apocalyptic North Korea. The dumb things that flash in front of your head, and it's anyway, it was hard to follow Jesus.

From their perspective, he was just a man who God was with. So it's hard to follow just a man who's teaching things that are hard to follow, hard to swallow, hard to understand, hard to trust. Right? Jesus was a renegade. We face that now.

Sometimes it's going to be hard to follow the magisterium, especially these days because the church is being led by God and the Holy Spirit through the desert, this desert of this time that we're living in. The whole this is my belief, and I very strongly believe it. The church I'm sorry. The holy spirit is leading the church through a desert to a promised land. Maybe in our lifetime, maybe in the lifetime of the people who follow who immediately follow us like my kids.

But it's not a thousand years in the future. It's soon, relatively soon. What that promised land is, I don't know, but that's what I believe. The holy spirit is taking the church through the desert to the next great thing that God is about to give to the world, to the church. I do believe that with all my heart.

And so the church is leading us through the desert. We are on a pilgrim journey. The church is, and we, with the church, are. And we're not familiar with the desert because we've had a long time in the history of the church, past hundred or so years. We've had a long time of comfort.

Yeah. There was World War one and World War two, but I'm talking about ecclesiastically, in the faith, in the state of the world, the culture, not the world, but the culture. We've had we've been really very comfortable for the past at least a hundred years, probably a few hundred. Now we come to the desert. Now the church will lead us through something, through a period that's uncomfortable, the way the culture is, the way the world is.

The church has to address things that were never part of the culture before. Should a gay couple should a gay man be confirmed and have his civilly civil his civil marriage husband be his sponsor. The church has never lived through a period of of something so silly. There's a lot of things the church is facing and living amongst that are completely new and novel to the human culture. How does the church navigate that?

Well, we don't have to decide that. That's between the church and the holy spirit. We don't have to decide that. But we are along for the ride. Right?

We are along for the ride. So this bumpy road, this painful desert that the Holy Spirit is leading the church through, we're go we're with the church through it. So the church necessarily will lead us through things, through ideas, through theology, through developments, through challenges that none of us have seen before, neither has the church. Well, the church really has seen everything before, but I mean specific things. And so, sometimes it's going to be difficult to trust and follow, and to be submissive to the church.

It's gonna be hard to follow the church sometimes. I'll give you an example. It was so hard sometimes for me to follow Pope Francis. I just wanted to sit down with him and have some coffee and say, holy father, listen. What the hell?

What what are you talking about? I heard, holy father, that you wanna revise the the our father prayer, so that it doesn't say, and lead us not into temptation. Okay. Holy father, do you really think that should be a priority right now? Have you seen the state of the liturgy in some of these dioceses?

Have you seen it? Are you aware of the things going on at the parish level, holy father? Or at the or at the national level, across the globe? Do you really think we need to spend time on the holy on the whole on the our father prayer? Seriously, holy father. Make that make sense. Holy father, listen. I have to ask you. This environment thing, what's up with that? Okay. The environment is a creation. We have to take care of creation. Yeah. Yeah. I I got you.

But seriously? Now? Holy father, how many people are already talking about taking care of the environment? A lot, right? Mucho, right? Okay. You two? Do they really need another ally? They're covered, they're good. For God's sake, literally for God's sake, move on. Let's talk about altar servers. Let's talk about the way overuse of ministers of holy communion. Let's talk about that. We need to have more women in the church. Holy father, listen.

Listen. I can tell you there's too many women in the church already. That's a secret between me and you. Okay? Secret. Secret. Secret. Okay? Let me tell you. At every mass, there's an army of Eucharistic ministers which already pisses me off. And 99.999% of them are women, an army of them. Altar servers, girls, Readers? Women. For Pete's sake, Holy Father. But I am not talking about having them in service in the Vatican and things like that.

I know. But holy cow. Don't you know, holy father, we're such a feminized culture today, this church? If you want more women appointed, just just appoint them. Just appoint them and move on. Don't make a big thing of it. Just appoint them and move on. Appoint them, move on, don't do a press conference. I get it. There's things that women can offer that men can't because we're distinct or different.

I agree with all of that, but damn. Do we really need to make a thing of it? But joking aside, Ms. Cown says, it's so hard as a new practicing Catholic to defend the church with the challenges of a culture clash. So hard defending the church with the challenges of the culture clash. Yes, it is. It is. It's part of the desert that we're being led through. And that's just the way it is. I wish I could say, yeah, but.

But there is no but. You're you haven't you you've nailed it right on. The only thing to say to that is that's part of the desert that we're that we're being led through. So regarding Pope Francis, sometimes his priorities were, like, serious. Sometimes his talking points were, really?

Highly annoyed every time he got in front of a microphone and delivered some off the cuff thing. I was highly annoyed that he did some prayer service on the anniversary of the Reformation or some crap like that. It's like, come on, man. But his work as pontiff, his theology, his letters, his encyclicals, he was a good theologian. He was.

Still, some of that stuff, at first, struck me as very hard to follow. But I said, where you go, holy father, I will follow. I don't understand it. Maybe I don't like it. But I am there with you.

I will follow you, holy father. Out of love for Jesus, I will follow you his vicar. And so with that attitude, I was more open to learning and understanding the theology of the holy father. His encyclical, his document, whatever. Things that were like, not off the cuff statements, but things were like, this is like part of his teaching.

Okay. I will do my best holy father in humility to read this, to understand it, and to receive it with the help of the Holy Spirit. And sure enough, I learned a lot from Pope Francis. I didn't become less conservative in my theology or anything like that, but I learned to broaden my theology a lot. I learned to see things from a slightly different additional, not different, additional angle, or to see things more broadly and more deeply without, like, losing the substance of what I already had come to believe.

You understand? That's because I in in a spirit of humility and and docility, where you go holy father, I will follow, even if I don't understand it. Where you go magisterium, I will follow because I'm a loyal son of the church, even if I don't agree with it or understand it. I'm not talking about what crazy bishops say, I'm talking about the work of the magisterial body. Not the not the words or work of a single or a handful of crazy cardinals in some country somewhere.

I'm talking about, like, the magisterial body. Where you go, I will follow. Jesus was hard to follow. He lost a lot of disciples. That John six, his teaching on the Eucharist, that was like the last straw for so many of his disciples.

And that that was like Pope Francis saying, we we have to be nice to gay people. It was like it's like earth shattering to the Jews. Eat my flesh and drink my blood, I'm out. That's it, Jesus. No. No. No. No. No. No. Don't stop me. I was Okay. Blessed are the poor. Okay. I was willing to work with you on that.

Okay. Blessed are the poor, I see that, you know. You know, who is my mother and my brother? It's the one who does the will of God. I don't like this idea of being brothers and, you know, with God and this, Okay. Alright. I was with you. I was with you when you healed the paralytic on Sabbath. I didn't like it, but okay. Alright. I'm with you. Because I'm down with the messaging and everything. Okay? I'm a little irritated, but okay. But once you say eat my flesh and drink my blood, okay.

Audi 5,000. Right? Do you know it was easier to follow Jesus than it is to follow the church? It was easier to follow Jesus first because he was there, his presence, having eyes on his miracles. The power of the words of the son of God, even though they didn't know he was the son of God.

His words had a power, not just his message. His presence had a power. Right? The church doesn't have all of that, even though it is his mystical body. It is harder to follow the church, but we have to follow the church the way the disciples follow Jesus. We have to trust the church the way they trusted Jesus. We have to be submissive and humble to the church. Well, what if the church is wrong? You let the holy spirit worry about that. Who are you?

What if the church is wrong? Who are you? To determine that the church is wrong. I'm sorry. Who the hell are you?

You tell me who you think you are because I would love to know. What if the church is wrong? You know why that pisses me off? You You know how many people on Substack notes were telling me that the church is wrong in no uncertain terms, but not those direct words? And then when they go on demonstrating where the church is wrong, it's like, my god, that's the worst theology I've ever heard.

This is your theological argument? That's the worst theology I ever heard. PS, I can tell that you googled two thirds of that. And because you googled it, you didn't know how they connected, that's why you didn't connect them correctly. But you're telling me the church is wrong?

Okay. Thank God you're not part of the Magisterium. Now, there's gonna be somewhat Some of you, maybe well intentioned Catholics, who in your heart, you're like, yes, I know, I wanna follow the Magisterium, but what if they're wrong? My friends, I want you to hear me, and I want you to never forget it. Okay?

When the magisterium exercises its teaching authority, it is never wrong. Do you understand that? It is never wrong. Sometimes it's incomplete. For instance, this ruling on coredemptrix, the case is not closed.

Subsequent magisteria might develop the theology further and say, well, you know what? We have found that through a further development of this theology, which Ben the sixteenth himself also said the theology was not mature yet. That's what those were his words. Maybe the next magisterium or the next one after that will say, through a further development of this theology, you know what? I think we can declare Mary as coredemptrix being part of her nature.

So this one is incomplete only because the theology is immature. You will have things like that. But when the magisterium exercises its teaching authority, it is never wrong. It is never wrong. Well, what if the church is wrong?

Put that thought out of your head, because that's never going to happen. It is never going to happen. So rely I mean, and I'm being serious, because I know there are some people who are well intentioned, and just worry about this. I'm telling you now, forget it. Put it out of your head.

When the church exercises its teaching authority, it is never wrong. Sometimes what it's teaching is incomplete like this. It it it's open for further development. Not change, but further development. You understand? There are things that were taught by one pope, for instance, that were further developed by another pope, that brought it to a culmination that didn't exist before. Well, that's not a contradiction. That's a development. You understand? The church has never ever contradicted itself.

Ever. That has never happened in two thousand years. It has progressed. It has deepened. Right? What we know about the Trinity today is a lot more than we what we knew about the Trinity in in January, and so on. But the church has never contradicted itself. When the church teaches, the church is on point. Don't worry. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, have faith in his promise.

He will preserve the church. The Holy Spirit will guide the church. The church will make mistakes, but not when it teaches. Not when it teaches. Have faith in that, because it's true. Let me go around the block here, see if anybody has anything to say. Walking by faith says, exactly. So the church must be submitted to. It is God's church. That's the bottom line.

You have to submit to the church the way you would submit to Jesus, because the church carries his authority, and the church is his mystical body. You understand? In your opinion, should we stay quiet, or are we supposed to speak up asking? Stay quiet about what? Exactly we are the church. Should we stay quiet or speak up? I don't know exactly what you're talking about, but I I don't think it matters what you're talking about. This answer will still apply. Stay quiet. Stay quiet.

Church doesn't need you to speak up. Church doesn't need me to speak up. And I'm really not. Like, I don't speak in the name of the church. I'm just an evangelizer. Right? Stay quiet. If you wanna say things, even say things publicly. Oh, okay. But don't feel like it's your mission. No. Jesus never Jesus never put that mission in front of you or me. Never. The mission Jesus put in front of you is you. Your salvation.

The salvation of your soul. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Right? Second to that, the souls of your children, soul of your spouse. But the church Jesus Christ, the Lord never put that in front of you, speaking up for the church.

Didn't put it in front of me either. Like, there are people on Twitter and stuff who are like, pope defenders and stuff like that. Like, okay, I'm I'm really not down with that. That's fine that they do that, but who asked them to do that? I I I don't know.

It's necessary, I guess, but if the choice is open your mouth or stay quiet, I would say stay quiet because opening your mouth does put you in the arena of spiritual warfare on a completely different level. You don't wanna go there. You don't wanna go it makes you vulnerable. It does. That's number one.

In other words, the devil can use that to make you more prideful, to make you more defiant. Believe it or not, the devil can use that to make you less magnanimous. He can use that in all sorts of ways. Okay? That's number one. Number two, by speaking up, you really are being distracted from your own salvation. You It really is a distraction. I've been there. It's a distraction. Also, speaking up, it removes you from a state of peace.

You I'm I'm gonna tell you a little secret. I pay a price to do this. I pay a price to do this. I'm gonna tell you, and this is something that every evangelizer will tell you if you ask them. Ask them, they will tell you.

What's the price I pay as an active evangelizer? My peace and my tranquility. That's a sacrifice I make. To be an evangelizer, to be someone who's speaking for the faith, speaking, you know, defending the church when the church is attacked, like what happened on Subzak. You have to have your finger on the pulse, you have to know what's going on.

Right? So you have to be all up in the news. You have to make yourself available to commentary that pisses you off, or comments hurled at you that hurt your feelings, or piss you off, or trigger you in some other way. You the price I pay to do this is my peace and my tranquility. And unless God has called you to do that, you really don't wanna make that sacrifice.

Take it from me. Because in the times that I have exited this work for a period, a year, two years, whatever, it's night and day difference how much more at peace I am. You understand? So that's another reason why you're better off just staying quiet. God didn't put it in front of you, so why are you taking it up? It leaves you spiritually very vulnerable. Take it from me. Oh, god. I could tell you stories, man. It leaves you very spiritually vulnerable where you don't you don't need to be.

You don't need to be. So why would you subject yourself to that? Should I jump in this water where there are alligators? Because I might not get bit by one. Well, I'll let you answer that for yourself.

And also, because peace, interior peace and tranquility are very are are essential to growing in holiness, to growing in virtue, and so on, you really don't wanna sacrifice that unless the Lord is asking you to. You really don't wanna sacrifice that. Should you speak up to your friends and family when they bring something to your face? Sure. Because they're bringing it to you now.

Right? Then sure, speak up. But the church does not need defending. I can tell you that. This might not be why you're asking, I'm just offering it extra. The church does not need you to defend her. The church has the Holy Spirit. Who are you? Who are you? I don't mean you you. I don't mean you you. You personally, the person asking the question. I mean the general you. The church has the Holy Spirit. Who the hell are you?

The church has the blessed mother as queen of the church. Who are you? Who am I? I'm gonna defend the church? Church's been around two thousand years. Did pretty good long before me. Long before you. Who are you? Church doesn't need you to defend her. Sometimes you have to defend the church when you're helping someone in their faith formation or evangelizing and stuff like that.

Okay. But the church does not need, like people sometimes see themselves as, warriors defending the church. Lord have mercy. The church has Saint Michael the Archangel. Who are you? Have you got it all over the Archangel? Oh my god. Who the hell are you? Because I wanna meet you. I wanna meet you like tomorrow.

I'm new praying the rosary, but it's brought me so much peace and love for our lady. The rosary is very powerful. What you describe, everyone will everyone will make that same statement. Who gets into the rosary? They will say those exact same words, and that tells you something. That it's real, it's not perception. Rosary is very, very powerful. Let me just get to one or two more comments here. Oh, someone is saying thank you for the answer. You're welcome.

And folks, I I I am not the kind of person who says, I know everything, and you don't know anything. Mhmm. I'm not that that. But I will say, I have been in this game a very long time, hitting the ground super aggressively, trying to understand God, trying to grow in holiness, understand the church, church teaching, stuff like that. So, you know that phrase, I've been around the block a few times?

It says that someone has been doing this for so many times, for so long, they're very good at it. Well, me tell you something. I have been around so many blocks, so many times, you have no idea. The reason I say that is not to say I'm better than you are. I'm not saying that.

What I'm saying is, when I lay down some wisdom, I want you to, at the very least, very seriously consider it. Because it it I paid a high price for it. I paid a high price for this wisdom that I laid down, and I On purpose, I wanna share it with you for free, so that it helps you. So, you're welcome for the wisdom, and I can tell you, you can you can trust it. Take it to prayer.

You don't have to take it as, like, the gospel. Take it to prayer, and and and, you know, give it some serious consideration. But I can tell you, it's it's well earned wisdom that I'm sharing with you there. Well earned wisdom. Lot of blood, sweat, and tears behind this wisdom. Let me tell you. TikTok is saying, some comments in this live have been filtered. Good. Good. And I hope the people who dropped comments that had to be filtered, I hope they were notified by TikTok.

I hope TikTok dropped something in their inbox that said, your comment was filtered, because I know that's really gonna piss them off. Oh, I'm gonna say this saucy thing to this stupid Catholic. TikTok message. Your your comment was filtered and cannot be delivered. Oh, that's gonna oh, that's gonna piss them off. Oh, yeah, baby. That's what I'm talking about. You gotta bring the fire when you bring the ruckus, son. You can't bring no nonsense. What's the matter with you?

A good Catholic station should really pick up this guy. Oh, damn. That's so cool. Thank you so much. I'm going to say this so that people on demand can hear this. Ave Christus Rex says, a good Catholic station Oh, I have a story to to tell you, by the way. A good Catholic station should really pick this guy up. Great speaker. Thank you so much, brother. Let me tell you, I applied for a job at a Catholic station.

Now, I come from media. Okay? So it's not like I used to be a garbage man, now I wanna be on the radio. Okay? I come from media. Have a media career. This Catholic station so needed me. Holy crap. It I mean, they were viable. Okay?

And it was not diocesan. It was a lay organization, a lay business, which is good. And I think they were fiscally and financially viable, and sustain self sustaining, and stuff like that. The product didn't look or sound cheap, but the product was cheap. It was so corny.

It was so hokey. And their god forgive me if I'm sinning. Their on air personalities were so, like, this spot really needed somebody like me just to shake things up a little bit. Can you believe these didn't hire me? I'm just a little bit bitter, because I really needed the job.

Mouths to feed, I was out of work, I was I was so stressed, my unemployment was cut off. You have no idea what it's like to be like, literally, do I have enough money to pay for this loaf of bread? Literally, that happened. And in this station, for the position, I don't remember the position, but it was like some Anyway, I was like super qualified for, and so on and so on. Would you believe they didn't hire me?

I I couldn't believe it. Not I couldn't believe it, not just because I didn't get the job and I needed it to feed my family. I couldn't believe it because I just wanted to call them up and say, listen, I'm saying this as a producer, not as somebody who you did not hire. Do you not see that your product sucks? You you don't see that?

Listen. Put your product against the worst of secular media, like the worst production. Put your product against that. Which would you which would you rather watch? Which would you rather listen to?

Based on the quality of what you're looking at or seeing. You don't realize that your product is very country bumpkin, and that you really could have used some because I'm telling you as a producer, you really should have picked this guy up. I don't understand. You you made such a dumb decision not hiring me or somebody like me. That was so dumb.

But what are you gonna do? You follow where the Lord leads you. And sometimes, you wanna go someplace that the Lord doesn't want you to go in, and you just have to eat it. Alright. It's not banned, just warned about. Yeah. That's an important distinction that Andrew is making. I can't read the last name. It's not banned, it's just advised that you do not use it. I don't recall now if the language is like a strict restriction, like you cannot use it.

I think it's more like you should not use it. You should not use it, I think. It's not banned. You know, folks, there's a lot of stuff in the in Catholic devotion that you cannot do publicly. What immediately comes to mind is the litany of humility.

You cannot say that publicly. I don't know why. I think I think because the litany of humility cannot be said communally. You are talking about yourself, and you are asking God to change something specifically in yourself. You can't do that for others. Like that he may surrender his pride. I forget how the words go. But that he may surrender his pride, Lord, hear us. That she may be may not desire to be loved. Lord, hear You can't do that for others.

You can only do that for yourself. I think that's why you can only pray that privately. But there are things that you I think there's a lineage of the Holy Spirit, which I think you cannot say publicly. I think Don't quote me on that. I could be wrong.

There are things that you're not allowed to use, let's put it that way, in certain conditions. Co redempt You can think of Mary as co redemptrix if you want. Co redemptrix if you want to. If you understand the theology that her cooperation with Jesus does not put her on par with Jesus, then you're free to to But I wouldn't use it as a title because the church grants titles. If the church does not grant the title, you should not give it to her.

Because believe me, the holy virgin will reject it. Hail Mary, co redemptrix. If if the blessed mother were here, she might slap you for saying that. If the church did not grant a title, you cannot. Okay? You can think of her as co redemptrix. You can even speak to her in that way. Mother, you are I I acknowledge you as the coredemptrix cooperating with your son Jesus. Make me holy as he is holy. You can like, when you're talking about her, you can do that.

When you're talking to her, when you're praying to her. It's not banned. It's just the church is just saying, it's not helpful anymore because people don't understand the theology behind it. So it's it's potentially confusing. Well, but the theology is yada yada yada yada, and therefore, coredentrics.

Yes. But here's also, this is some theology that can also lead to coredentrics. Mary is on par with Jesus. She's not equal to him, but she's the same as him in terms of the the work of Jesus for the salvation of man. Therefore, coredemptrix. Ah. So we have a true theology, and an errant theology, and both can culminate to coredemptrix. Do you know what that means? That means you can't use that term. Because true theology and errant theology can both result in that term.

Therefore, we cannot hold that term to be a truth because it can also reflect a falsehood. Okay? The theology and the again, that term has never been used as a title for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has always been used as a theological descriptor. You can continue to understand it that way. The church reaffirmed that. You can continue to understand it that way, as a theological descriptor. Not a title. Okay? Now I gotta start wrapping this up and get the heck out of here.

If someone every day read repeatedly read repeat repeatedly Magnificat, you understand deeply That's a pretty great statement. If someone every day repeatedly read the Magnificat, you would understand deeply who Mary is. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. You know what's what I love about the Magnificat?

From this day, all generations will call me blessed, for the Lord has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Isn't that cool? Do you know what she's saying? From this day, generations will call me blessed. Well, why would we do that? Because of the Lord. Because the Lord has done great things for me, and because his name is holy. In her Magnificat, she's putting herself beneath the Lord again. That's the second time now she's done that. Right?

But it's so cool. From this day forth, all generations will call me blessed because the Lord has done great things for me, and holy is his name. That is so cool. So Mary is like, everyone will rightly call me blessed, like I'm blessed by the Lord, and I'm blessed in my nature, not because of me, because of God. That is so cool.

That is so cool. Okay. So let me start wrapping up and getting out of here. Folks, just wanna remind you a couple things I wanna remind you. I know this sounds like a plug, it sounds like commercial, but it it really isn't. I run a a newsletter, like my own personal newsletter, called catholicfirebrand.com. Do you know why? I'm gonna tell you why. Not everybody wants to go as deep as my substack, stoking the embers. Not everybody wants to go as deep as that.

Some people want a little bit more than what you get on social media. My personal newsletter, catholicfirebrand.com, it's free. And what that is is it's a semi regular newsletter. I don't have time to do one every week, but I try to. It's a semi regular newsletter where I boil down, here's the things that I've published Between my three publications and my podcasts, here's a breakdown of what I've published.

Here's a little snippet, here's a blurb, here's a little clip, here's a video clip, whatever. Here's something that blew up on socials, whatever. And then you can look at all of that stuff that I've done that week, or that in those two weeks, and you can decide that looks interesting. Let me check that out. Catholicfirebrand.com.

Maybe you don't wanna go as deep as I get on stoking the embers. Maybe you don't wanna go that deep. Or maybe you want a little bit more than what you're getting on this platform or any other social platform, because social platforms can only provide so much. Plus, there's an algorithm, so you may or may not see the stuff that I'm posting. When you subscribe to my newsletter, catholicfirebrand.com, again, it is free.

And when I send out those newsletters, there's no algorithm. You just get them in your inbox. Right? And sometimes I put commentary on there that I don't put anywhere else, stuff like that. So consider it. Catholicfirebrand.com. It's free. There's no gimmicks. It's my personal thing. It's not a business.

It's my personal thing. Catholicfirebrand.com. And follow me everywhere on socials at real t j haynes, same handle as this platform. If you do feel like going real deep into this, into this adventure of growing in holiness, and becoming saints, and claiming your eternal destiny. If you feel like going deep to the maximum, hit that link in my bio, man.

That's my substack. That's my my the crown jewel of my publications, Stoking the Embers. Link is in my bio. Check it out. Give that a subscribe as well. That is also free. Same thing, there's no algorithm. Every time I publish something hot, you get it in your inbox. It really is kinda cool, because it eliminates the middleman, You never miss a beat. But that's up to you.

Link is in my bio. It's called Stoking the Embers. The website is stokingembers.com, and I really hope you check me out. Be sure that you share this, tap like, click your heels, do back flips, whatever TikTok wants you to do for entertainment to merit a little bit more exposure for my content. I would really appreciate that. Thank you, TikTok. Let me just go around. Some people say things, and I don't want them to feel unacknowledged. So let me just make sure. God bless you too, Andrew.

Let me just make sure no one is saying something that I I like to try to acknowledge people, to let people know that they count, and they matter to me, and and you do. Saint Michael the Archangel says, I am Catholic. Of course, you're Catholic. You're an archangel. You didn't have to tell us you're Catholic.

Thank you for joining me, Saint Michael the Archangel. I want to know I want you all to know sometimes I pray the rosary. I feel I pray with Mary every day. Andrew's talking up a storm. Great comment, Andrew. Catholic here, fifty seven years. Now, Saint Michael the Archangel, I know you're older than fifty seven years. Come on. You fought the devil in heaven. You gotta be older than 57.

Hey, that rhymed. You fought the devil in heaven. You gotta be older than 57. Thought on Our Lady of Peace, also known as Our Lady of Medjugorje. Understand if you don't have time.

I am not comfortable with the apparition of Medjugorje. I will go with whatever the church says, but if it's I'm I'm not like against it, but I'm like 55%, I'm not so sure that's real. 55%, maybe 60. I'm not sure that's real. But and the church has already really decided that it there's nothing appears to be supernatural happening there.

The local church and that's all you need, folks. So you don't need the Vatican to rule. The local church rules. The diocese there rules, and the diocese there has already ruled. The Vatican, I think, has taken up the cause.

They're now investigating it, and so the jury is still out because the apparitions allegedly are still going on. Maybe they'll be going on forever. I I don't know. But if you ask me, I don't I'm I'm And I know very great people, priests, like normal priests who are, you know, traditional minded and just solid, solid, solid theological minds, who believe that it's real. Okay.

I'm just I'm not there. That's just me personally. If the church eventually rules again, and this time the Vatican says there's some super supernatural stuff going on here. It is worthy of belief, then, okay, then I will accept it. I'm just not personally there. If the church says it's good to go, it's good to go. Where the church goes, I will follow. That's the last comment I can get to, folks. I'm sorry. Thank you for joining me for this TikTok live.

This supposed to be, like, a half an hour long. I've been on here over an hour. Holy cow. Man, Lord, have mercy. TJ Hayes signing out here. God bless you, ladies and gentlemen. God be with you all. Sign up for my newsletter, catholicfirebrand.com. Check me out at Substack at stoking the embers. Link is in my bio. Follow me everywhere on socials @realtjhaynes. God bless you. God be with you all. Bye bye.