Stand or Lose - Why Some Catholics are "Asleep"

Stand or lose. What do you do when things don't go your way in the church? What is your attitude like as a Catholic? What's the whole point of this? I have to tell you, I'm learning that a lot of you don't know that answer.

We're gonna talk about some things you need to consider. This is not gonna be a long one. Every time I say that, they're, like, two hours long. Going out live and recorded for on demand playback play play black playback Sunday, December 21 in the year of our Lord 2025. And I say thank you, Catholic church.

Fading that music out to a close. I have to tell you, it's the twenty first. Can you believe Christmas is this close already? Christmas is forget about right around the corner. It's like three doors down right now. Christmas is this close. I don't know where the time has gone. I remember, of course, all of you have this memory, I'm sure, being children. Right? Waiting for Christmas.

Right? That joyous day when you were gonna get all these gifts, but also there was something about the anticipation and the buildup. Right? It wasn't just the gifts. I mean, I remember when I when I was a kid, we were poor. It's not like we had, like, oceans of I mean, there were four of us. So there was an ocean of gifts, but it's not like each of us had a bunch of gifts. It wasn't just about the presents. It was about everything. It was about the togetherness.

It was about the feasting. It was about the day off from school. You know? It was just so many things just came together on Christmas. Right? And so there was always this anticipation. And it seemed like from December 1 to December 21, it felt like it took a hundred years. Didn't it? Felt like it took a hundred years for Christmas to get here. I have to tell you something though. It it does spark a thought that I wanna share with you. Ellis, I'm gonna get to what you said in a second.

So don't give me credit for it. But what is heaven like? I often describe heaven being like the anticipation as we wait for something big, like Christmas. Right? The anticipation building and building and building and building. Right? That that excitement. Even though it's not here yet, you want for it to get here. You want for Christmas to get here now or your birthday or whatever the big day is. As as children, I'm talking about as children.

And even though you're you're you're you don't have the object of your desire, right, the day hasn't hasn't arrived, there's something awesome about the anticipation. Right? And then when Christmas gets here, it's arrived and the anticipation is over. Or if you think of it as a gift, you're waiting in anticipation for this special gift that you asked for, and your anticipation is building, building, building. You're losing your mind just about, right, waiting for this gift.

And then you get the gift, and there's an excitement in getting the gift. There is an excitement in getting the gift, but it's momentary. And the excitement of getting the gift means the excitement of the anticipation is over. Now you have this plateau of receiving the gift. You open it open up the wrapping paper and,

Mhmm. Heaven. What's heaven like? Heaven is the tension and excitement of that anticipation, and it's the joy of receiving what you've been anticipating. It's both of those things at the same time forever and ever and ever.

And it never wears off, but never wears out. Can you imagine? On Earth, the joy of getting brings an end to the joy of the anticipation, and then it doesn't even last. Heaven is like the excitement and tension of the anticipation, and the excitement and explosive joy of receiving what you've been waiting for at the same time. It's both of those feelings at the same time, and it never ends.

Never wanes. Never wears off. Never wears out. Isn't that pretty amazing? So talking about what's the point of Catholicism, and I'm going to get what sparked this thought?

I'm gonna get to in a minute. First, I do have a few words that I want to share with, with the folks, all of you, and those people catching me on demand, this will probably be a reel or a YouTube short. I very shockingly I very shockingly went what I would call viral on social media. I can't believe it either. All of a sudden, and it's not every video, and I'm I'm fine with that.

But all of a sudden, I had a video that was getting tens of thousands of likes or of of views on Instagram. Did fairly well on TikTok as well. And then another video, then another couple of videos didn't go viral, but they did very well. And then here and there, I'm I've been, you know, putting up clips that are getting a few thousand views. That's pretty amazing.

And a lot of likes. I really I wish people would comment more, but some of them are getting a lot of comments too. But I'm noticing something because I'm studying this very, very, very, very carefully. And I'm noticing something. The stuff that gets the most action is the most assertive, which is fine.

The stuff that gets the most action can be interpreted, it is not, but it can be interpreted as being the most aggressive, even the most hostile. And people on Substack might remember this because a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago when this all started, I said it makes me very sad that the things that I'm posting that are doing very well are the things that are not going to make people any holier. The things that I that I produce that will make them holy, they probably will never see because of the algorithm. Or if they do see it, they won't particularly care for it, even though that's the stuff that'll make them holy. That's my that's one of my observations.

Another observation is the kind of attention I'm attracting with some of those more. It can be interpreted as obnoxious. It isn't, but if you're only seeing the clip, it can look obnoxious. But it isn't if you see the whole context, but fine. The kind of attention that's attracting.

The kind of attention that what people perceive as aggression and hostility is attracting. I'm not talking about from Protestants. I'm talking about from other Catholics. And this is very, very useful data for me because as an evangelizer, I try to keep my finger on the pulse. I try to understand where people are, how they think, how they perceive, how receptive they are to to truth in general or to this, that, and the other particular truth.

So any opportunity I have to get this data, I take. So I'm watching these damn comments like a hawk. I don't always respond to them, but I'm watching carefully. And I'm a little surprised at some of the commentary that I've seen. Some of it is legit hostile. Legit hostility from Catholics. Some of it is legit insanity. That one actually does not surprise me. I'm not talking about people who are saying silly or ridiculous things. I'm talking about actual, God forgive me, lunacy.

Actual crazy people. That part doesn't surprise me, but, oh my god, I have to tell you something that's really exceptional about the Catholic church, lowercase c church, I'm talking about the people here. The thing that's really exceptional where we really, really stand out, we stand out in many ways. But one way that we stand out special, we have the biggest nut jobs you could ever imagine. They have them in Judaism. They have them in Islam. They have them in Protestantism. Oh my god.

It's not even the violence. I'm seeing Catholics who view the Catholic church and their affiliation with it as sort of like how children view their big strong daddies. Right? My daddy can beat up your daddy like he really can. That sort of thing. My father's bigger than your father. He's tougher than your father. Whatever. And these are all good things for little girls and boys to believe about their dads. Of course, for my children, it's actually true.

But these are good things for for children to believe about their their parents, their fathers. Right? But I'm seeing that. I'm seeing that Catholics perceive there are wolves out in the world, and that's true. And we're gonna watch a video, by the way, about some of these wolves in the world.

It's gonna be very entertaining. And I in this video, I want there's a lie and a truth, and I wanna see if you guys can spot it. We're gonna go to that in in a minute or two. And it's not a video that I did. It's someone else's video. It's good. So it's actually entertaining. You'll enjoy it. So stick around. Hello, recess hall of famer, there in Substack.

So Catholics see the church as or they see they see the plane this way. It's a crazy world and there are wolves in there, but my daddy's big and strong. So what do children do when they have a big strong daddy? They heckle. They thumb their nose at the opposition.

They throw rocks at the opposition. Well, what do they care? I'm standing behind my big strong daddy. Well, there's a there's a thread of truth and trueness in that, but it's actually not a good attitude to have. Let me put it to you another way.

There are Catholics in the Catholic populace. Whether or not they go to church is another story. My perception is many of the ones who have sparked this thought in me are not going to mass. That's another conversation. There's this sense that I feel safe associated, affiliated with the pillar and foundation of truth.

Because when I look out into the world, things are so crazy and people are saying such stupid things like and truly objectively stupid things, not just object not just stupid by their perception, but truly, truly stupid. Truly errant. Well, I feel safe because at least I associate with I am affiliated with the pillar and foundation of truth, the holy Catholic church. Well, there's there's truth in that, and there's value to that, but that is not what this is about. That is not what being Catholic is about.

That's a bonus. But it's a bonus with a purpose. So let me string this all together. The point of Catholicism is not simply to have a wellspring of true and right. There's value to that, especially in a world that's like ours.

There's value to knowing where you can go for the truth. And frankly, it's a truth that does not move. Because once it's true, it's true. A truth is a truth that does not change. So there's value in in knowing that you're on board this ship that is always headed in the right direction. But what are you doing on this ship? You just hanging out at the bar? Some of you

Do you think knowing right from wrong, knowing truth from nonsense in a world that's swimming around in nonsense, do you think your knowing what the truth is is going to

Knowing the truth and feeling like your mission is accomplished because you know it, but you do not let it transform you, you do not let it change you, you do not orient yourself toward a new life in that truth, changing your life, repenting from sin, being faithful to the gospel. Failing to do that while still knowing what the truth is, knowing right from wrong, knowing truth from nonsense, that can land you a one way ticket. Well, it's always one way. That can land you a first class ticket to hell, not heaven. You think it's enough that you know the truth?

My friends, Satan knows the truth. He's in hell. Think it's enough that you believe in Jesus? Well, that's great. That's an important step. Satan believes in Jesus. He's in hell. All of his generals believe in Jesus. They are in hell. The point of being Catholic, again, I am not saying it's valueless, that you find safety, security, confidence in being Catholic because it's it's the wellspring of truth.

It's the pillar and foundation of truth. Well, that's good. But that is not enough. And from some of the comments that I've seen, some of them were like, so listen. I'm a kid from the eighties.

I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Old school Brooklyn, where you really had to be tough to get through. And some of the comments I saw made my eyes bulge. Like back in the day, you'd get punched out for comments like that. And I'll tell you, back in the day, some of the comments that I've seen were were so hostile and so violent that where I'm from, that would instantly start a fight. Just the comment by itself.

And that is an ongoing, Lord have mercy, exhausting at times challenge. Yes. If you think it comes easy, oh my god, you have not been trying. It does not come easy. It is a challenge.

Because growing to be like God? Nobody ever said that was gonna be easy because it ain't. If you are meandering through this Catholic journey and it's easy and there's never a challenge, you're doing it wrong. If you are waving a Catholic banner, and many, many are waving a Catholic banner, but are not actually practicing the faith, my friend, you're wrong. You dishonor the Lord.

You dishonor the martyrs. You dishonor the church fathers. And to be real honest, you dishonor your brothers and sisters who are here in it to win it, in the struggle, in the fight, fighting to win, racing to win. Those of us who are in the struggle doing all those things, you dishonor us because you are waving a banner that we are fighting like hell to earn and to keep. I used to say when I was when I was training for the Marine Corps, we heard all the time how hard boot camp is going to be, and and it was.

But what I learned as a as a fleet marine, earning the uni and that was always the context is earning that uniform, earning your chevrons, this and that. It's gonna be hard. Yes. But what I learned as a fleet marine is keeping the uniform is harder than earning it. Keeping the uniform is it's harder to be a good marine than to become a marine at all. And I'll say that too. You know, being a Catholic, it's easy to wave the banner. It's hard to warrant it. To warrant waving that banner. Is hard.

And sometimes you drop the banner, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose because you quit. It's hard. And it dishonors those of us who are in the struggle when there are people picking up the banner and waving it around who don't do a damn thing to earn warranting that banner. So I will say that. There's a reason to this Catholic thing, and it is not pride.

Hip hip hooray. I'm a Catholic. Well, that I mean, there is pride in being Catholic, but that's not the point. The point is to change your life, to give your life to Jesus. I know it sounds corny, but try it for a month. If you think it's corny, then it should be easy. Right? Try it for a month. Then tell me how corny it is after day 31. Give your life to Jesus. Turn away from sin. That's hard. Be faithful to the gospel. That's hard. It's not so hard that you're gonna live in misery.

I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is it's it's a challenge. Because the Catholic the Catholic experience is about a conversion of your nature, and that's hard. And it is painful. It is painful to change, to really change. Not to do different. That's easy. But to do different to the extent that it affects a change of who you are, a change of your nature, that's hard. Waiving a banner is easy. If you want to wave the banner, you're going to have to earn it.

So get your ass back to a confessional if you haven't been in a while. Get to church if you haven't been in a while. Get in this game and be in it to win it with your brothers and sisters. Because just being able to say my daddy's stronger than your daddy, my daddy can beat up your daddy any day of the week. Yeah.

Just saying that, that's just not enough. Because at the end of the day, the Catholic church isn't our daddy anyhow. Catholic church is our mother. It's our holy mother. The daddy you have to be worried about lives in heaven, and he can send a soul to hell. You think you're hiding behind that daddy and throwing rocks at the opposers? Did you ever stop to think about this? Maybe you're the opposer. Which side of daddy are you on? Standing in front of him, thumbing your nose?

Or standing behind him in safety and security? Saying help me father to be different. Not just to do different, but to be different. And please keep the opposers away from me. It's a very different attitude to have, isn't it? Okay. Enough shit about that. Now, I'm gonna get to this video. First, way wrong song. Sounds like a KISS concert.

There are people of a certain generation who are saying who the hell's KISS? Sounds like a KISS concert. What is that, a gay band? I just wanna go around the rooms, play some traveling music here, see if there's anybody saying anything worth repeating and responding to. Now Ellis said something at the top of the show.

Ellis was not able to watch, the Substack stream because of weird laws going on over there in in Britain. And he said the government situation is crazy here, he said. In our current government if our current government held an election today, they'd be reduced from 404 down to just four seats. Damn. They are polling at around 7%.

Wow. And then, Ellis also says social media made y'all fault made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting oh, yes. Ellis is quoting Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson is also from Brooklyn. I just wanna tell you.

Social so the quote is social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it. Exactly. Because the things people say on socials my god. I just can't hello, Chris of Saint Patrick. God bless you, brother, for joining me there on YouTube.

I just can't believe some of the things people get away with saying, like, who raised you? And did you not have friends when you were a little kid? Because, you know, when you have friends, when you have a social life, social circles, and I wasn't a social butterfly by any means, but when you're dealing with real people, there's a corrective effect that goes on there. You learn that there are things you just don't say. Right?

I'll tell you the truth. This is the honest to God truth. I know how to restrain myself a little bit, like in a professional setting. But the things I say on the air, I would absolutely say to you in person. A 100000%.

No problem. Then there are things that I think that I wouldn't dare say to a real real person. Because there's this corrective effect that goes on when you deal with real people. The point I'm trying to say is, what I say here, I will absolutely say to a person, but sometimes I know to exercise restraint like in a professional setting. And then there are things that I feel more deeply about, more emotionally, that I would never say because I know that emotion is wrong.

It's errant. It's not good. It's not of God. But my point is, you learn these things as you deal with people. I just can't get over what some people think passes for actual evangelization. You should just tell

Clearly, you have never evangelized a single soul. You have to tell them this, and you should tell them that, and you should do this, and you should do that. Clearly, you have never spent half of a second in evangelization of real people. And comments comments on social media too. It's like, I cannot believe, like, is this how you people talk to real people?

Clearly not. Or or you must live in fantasy land or fairy land or someplace because where I'm from, you would get can I say this on YouTube? You would get punched in the face for a statement like that.

So it comes from the matrix. There is a lie and a truth in here, and I wanna see if you guys can spot it. You have to pay attention. You have to listen carefully. Listen to the dialogue. Listen to the voices in the background. Really take it in. Let's see if you can catch it. And if you'd rather just enjoy it, I don't wanna do no homework. I just wanna chill and relax. That's okay too. You're going to enjoy going to enjoy this. Okay? Let's go to it.

Every single man or woman who has stood their ground, everyone who has fought this agenda got canceled. Where they have failed, you will succeed.

Ah, see, you're very close, Ellis. It does have to do with gender. Did you catch when he said most of these people most of these people aren't ready to open a biology textbook or something to that effect? Did you catch that? Most of these people I can't play it again because YouTube will shoot me in

However, it's a limitation of the whole truth. The whole truth of biology comes from truth itself, truth himself, God. It starts in Genesis. Man and woman, he created them. It goes beyond man I mean, I can go on and on and on about gender in the Bible. But it starts there. Man and woman, he created them. So what we see first is that God didn't create some things. He created some ones. Because he created some ones and not some things, and because God is the creator of them, we can't change them.

They're not some they're not things. We create things. God created someones, and God created them, so we have no power to change them. And because God created them, they are exactly as they should be. Okay? They're they're faithful to his design. That's number one. Number two, he created two someones, not 76 someones. But here's where science and revelation depart. Well, it depends on whose whose interpretation of science you turn to.

Gender is really not cookie cutter. There are things that are that that are universally true. Okay. Men are aggressive. That's just true. Women are more compassionate. That's just true. Do women exhibit aggression? Sure. They can. Do men exhibit compassion? Of course they can. But generally, the men lean in the direction of aggression. Women lean in the direction of compassion. Men are interested in things.

Women are interested in persons. You understand. Right? So those things are universally true. Of course, there can be exceptions. Of course, there are women in IT who are very good at it. Generally, it's the men who go into the technology fields and excel. Are there women in IT? Sure. I'm talking about women who are good at it.

Not women who are just doing it to make a political statement and they actually suck at it. I'm talking about women who are, like, legit, good IT professionals. Yes. Of course, they exist. I know a few of them. Okay? So there are those exceptions, but we're talking about gen what's generally true. Boys like roughhousing and sports. Girls like pretty things and their friends. I I don't know because I'm not a girl, but you get what I'm saying.

I didn't teach my children to like these gender normative things or those gender normative things. They picked them up on their own. Okay? I'm a guy who does not like sports. Sports is so boring to me except for baseball and boxing. And that's it. Those are the only sports I'm into. Baseball and boxing. That's it. That's not normal for guys if you pick up a textbook.

So we don't get truth from a textbook first. We get truth first from divine revelation. That's where it comes from first. There are going to be things covered in a textbook that are not covered in divine revelation because that's not the point of the Bible. It's not the point of divine revelation to teach us those things.

These are just things that we get from it. Right? So there will be some things that you can get from a textbook. Even those things will be limited. Even those things will be limited.

The reason I'm harping on this and pointing this out is because there are a lot of people who are fed up with the nonsense they're seeing in the secular world, and they are constantly appealing to science, science, science, science. Open a open up a textbook. Yeah. It sounds good, except you're only setting yourself up for disaster because a textbook is step two. Step one is the revelation of God in scripture and in church teaching.

That's step one. If our collective response to the lies in the secular world is an appeal to textbooks, You think we're going to solve the problems we're seeing in the world? We're going to create different ones. The problems we see in the world are easy to spot, easy to identify. Right?

Because they're so off base from reality. What do you do when people now make their nonsense look just like reality? That's a much more dangerous problem, and it's a harder problem to solve. So I say this especially to Catholics out there who know right from wrong, who want to know the truth and repel lies and all this, but your way of doing that is a textbook and not church teaching. Your way of doing that is science and math, but not practicing the holy Catholic faith.

I am telling you now as your brother, you are headed for trouble. And especially, here's another problem with that. You'll cherry pick what is true from the Catholic teaching according to what you can verify in a what you think you can verify in a textbook. Big mistake. Truth starts with divine revelation because truth comes to us from God.

Science gives us truth, of course, if it's good science, but it is not the source and origin of truth. That's all I'm saying. Let me not beat that one to death. Ellis says truth, which is itself okay. So Ellis is sharing a quote from Pope Benedict the sixteenth.

Truth, which is itself a gift in the same way as charity, is greater than we are most definitely. Caritas in Veritate, in cyclical, charity in truth. A lot of people don't realize this, but charity and truth have to go together. Because once you separate them, you do not have charity and you do not have truth. They necessarily have to go together.

Heads and tails on a coin have to go together because you can't have one without the other. If you don't have charity, you don't have truth. If you have truth but no charity, you don't have truth. That's just the truth. Sadly, the mo for most people, their truth oh, sorry.

This is coming from someone from YouTube. I forgot to I should say that for the on demand folks. Sadly, for most people, their truth is only encompassed by physical matter, spirituality not on their radar. Yeah. So in a world where we've gone back to paganism, in an effort to correct cultural collective paganism, we risk becoming like the animals.

Maybe that's a better way to put it. We risk becoming like the animals. So let me wrap this show up. I hope you enjoyed that video. I'm not going to play it again or offer more commentary because now I'm worrying if YouTube is gonna shoot me in the head over it.

I think people overstep those lines all the time on YouTube, and nobody gets shot for it. But by the way, if you're not following me on YouTube, subscribe rather on YouTube. Please subscribe to me on YouTube at Catholic Firebrand, and subscribe to me everywhere on socials at real TJ Haines. I just wanna bring you into my world. So there's about 5,000,000,000 messages that keep digging on my phone and on my wrist.

Most of it is almost all of it is complete nonsense. There's someone playing Perry Cuomo outside. You probably can't hear it, but I can hear it. Why are you playing Christmas Perry Cuomo outside? Who is that?

So let me I'm about to, like, have a nervous breakdown, so I have to bring start bringing this to a close. The point of this episode is this. The title was Stand or Lose. Oh, I'm just gonna bring this up briefly, like super briefly. But this is part of what sparked this.

This is something I'm not I'm not I I don't wanna don't wanna call people out. I don't wanna call people out or risk embarrassing anybody, and that that is absolutely not my style. So I'm gonna say very little about this. Okay? Again, it is not my style to call people out and embarrass anyone.

Doesn't matter how wrong they are. You have no you have no idea how many people I could have called out, like really wrong, wrong people, secularists, whatever, but it's not my style. Someone wrote an article on Substack basically saying that, unless I'm misinterpreting it, the Catholic church now being against the death penalty, I'm considering becoming going to the Eastern Ortho going to Eastern Orthodoxy. You might have heard this before. If the holy father bans the TLM, maybe we

The church will never ever do anything that will justify or validate your leaving. Even if you go to another rite, which wouldn't be terrible, right, if you go to one of the other Catholic rites that are still under the pope, but then you see then you're still under the pope. And the pope sometimes is your issue. Right? So I don't know what that'll achieve for you, but whatever.

Just stop. The church is never going to do anything that will justify that ever. If the church ever did anything, made a certain judgment or pronouncement that you think justifies your leaving, and I'm telling you this not out of anger, I'm telling you this as an equal as your brother, you are wrong. You are wrong. The Eastern Orthodox Church was wrong for breaking away.

The reformers were wrong for breaking away. And if the church ever does anything that to your perception justifies, validates, warrants your leaving, you are wrong. And I'm not saying this to correct you. I'm saying this to reassure you of this. The church will never do anything to justify your leaving.

If the church appears to do something to justify your leaving, and I I'm serious. I'm not telling you this, like, as as a lash. I'm I'm telling you this, like, to to give you some wisdom. If the church ever does something that to you justifies your leaving, I am telling you, you're misunderstanding something. Because the church will never ever teach a lie.

Sometimes the church will teach a truth, right, or development of the truth that you don't understand. Right? And that's happened to me too. And you know what I tell myself? I must have been wrong. And, folks, I'm not a saint. So if I can get there, you can get there. Please stop flirting with this idea of leaving the church. First, because it's foolish. I say that to you as an equal.

It's foolish. So stop. It sounds to me like, you know what? If mommy and daddy don't let me go to this party, I'm just gonna run away. Now let me think of the various ways that I might do that.

I might sneak out in the middle of the night, or on the way home from school, I just don't come home, or now how would I take my things? So I'd have to pack ahead of time. You start fantasizing about how you'd run away from home if mommy and daddy don't give you what you want. I'm I'm serious. That's what that sounds like to me. You're not really going anywhere, so knock it off. If you're really considering going somewhere, because I don't like that the church changed teaching

Get to the resource material if you can. Like, there are people who are saying the church changed church teaching on death penalty. No, it didn't. What the church teaches now was always my understanding of what the church taught. Always. It's not new. Didn't shock me in the least. What shocked me was that people thought it was a change. It was not a change. I'm not gonna get into that whole spiel all over again.

So my point of that is is this. You you stand or you lose. Because if you decide to leave, you're losing. My friends, even if you decide to leave to another right of the Catholic church, you're still losing. Do you know why? Because you left. Because you left. What do you think that does to your spiritual conditioning? What do you think that does to your to your interior disposition? You left.

Right? What do you think it does to a child when one of their parents leaves? Daddy left my mommy. Mommy left daddy. Whatever. What do you think that does to a child? What do you think it does to the parent who leaves? Makes them more prone to leave again the next time they get into a relationship. Right? You leave, you orient yourself to to to to defeat, I guess.

So take heart. Have faith and trust that the Catholic church teaches the truth. And sometimes it's a truth that's foreign to you. Or it's a deepening of the truth. This happened a lot with Pope Francis.

Sometimes he would say something that at first sounded so dumb, And then when I stopped myself to read it again, I'm like, oh, wait, wait, wait. I know where this is from. I know what he's talking about. He's saying he's saying it very badly, but I I know what he's I okay. I'm familiar with this foundational theology he's talking about, and he's taking it a little bit deeper.

Okay. Let me look at this more patiently. This happened a number of times with Pope Francis. When he whenever he went into theologian mode. Right? I'm not talking about, like, off the cuff nonsense in front of a microphone, like, out of nowhere. When he went into theology mode, they this often happened where I'm like, this is so dumb. Oh, wait a minute. This sounds familiar. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. I'm familiar with this. This is not actually doesn't actually come from him. This is actually very old theology, and he's deepening it. Okay. Now let me check this out and learn from it. Okay. I'm learning something new. I I'll I'll give you one example. The eternal dignity of the human person.

Or infinite, not eternal, infinite dignity of the human person. I learned so much from that. I can't I can't even tell you. And what is taught in Dignitatis Infinitum, whatever the hell it's called, it opened my mind to parts of scripture that were always kind of on my radar, but never clicked, and then it's like, Because humans have infinite dignity. Because our infinite our our our dignity doesn't come isn't a creation.

Our infant our dignity comes from God. And I can go down a line of scripture. I can't do it now, but I have, in treating of this, and in researching it, I can do a lot go down a line of scripture supporting that. That, yes, human dignity is infinite. But my my initial thought was, how stupid.

People aren't people aren't people are not infinite. We're finite. How stupid. But, okay, I'll listen. Sometimes the church is going to deepen a truth that you thought you already had in full, and the church is going to lead you to a place where you see you didn't have it in full.

The church is never going to do anything that will justify you leaving it. So stop it. You know what will happen sometimes? The church is going to take you to a truth that will justify your confusion. That's gonna happen sometimes.

And that's something that you have to settle with the help of the church, with the help of, you know, books, theologians, your local priest. Sometimes the church is gonna lead you to a place that you have to figure out or or not figure out, but it confuses you and you have to work through that confusion. That's the work you have to do. The work you have to do is not figuring out the best way to run away from home. That is ridiculous.

That is foolish. Once you do that, you have already set yourself up for a loss. You've already set yourself up for a loss. Mountains of Elysium, GK Chesterton, I want to be so Mountains of Elysium. Everyone's quoting people tonight. That's great. Mountains of Elysium is quoting g g k Chesterton. I want to be part of a church that is right when I am wrong. Before you criticize the church, ask yourself, why do you think you are right? Usually, the answer is pride.

Yeah. Pride is and that's his own addition to Chesterton's quote. Pride is a big part of it. Comfort is a big part of it. You know, I'll I'll tell you this. You know, a lot of things that Pope Francis said theologically shocked and confused people. And I'm I'm not telling you this pridefully. Most of it there were these times where he went deeper that it confused me. I'm not taking back what I said. But most of it, of what Pope Francis offered, was not shocking to me.

To me, it was classical theology. But most people had never been exposed to it before. So their reaction to it was confusion, discomfort. And I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you something too. I'm sorry to babble on like this.

There are Catholic commentators out there that many Catholics trust that shouldn't. Because those some of those Catholic commentators are theologians who I know had exposure to that theology. Because I am not a theologian, and I had exposure to it. And despite the fact that they had exposure, I know they had exposure to this theology that was shocking everyone, these Catholic commentators got in front of

I'm a real communicator. Part of that superpower is I know bullshit when I see it. Folks, you better choose your friends real carefully in Catholic media. Choose your friends real carefully, super carefully. Because you think the smoke of Satan that has entered the church, you think it's in chanceries and and parishes?

Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's in Catholic media? Think about it. I wanna thank you all for joining me today. Didn't I tell you didn't I start the show saying this is gonna be a short one?

Stokingembers.com. If you would like to sign up for my personal newsletter, the firebrand dispatch, go to catholicfirebrand.com. That's just basically, I summarize I give exclusive commentary that you only get there. I give, I summarize the latest things that I published everywhere on Substack, latest, podcast, and all that stuff. It's an easy way.

It's a small bite and an easy way to stay on top of everything that I'm doing. Plus you get exclusive, exclusive commentary once in a while. It's not like a frequent thing. Okay? Catholicfirebrand.com. Once you start getting the firebrand dispatch, you'll, you'll be in the know. Let me end this because my switcher here is giving me issues. Thank you for joining me. This has been fire branded. I've been your host, TJ Haynes. God bless you. God be with you all. Bye bye.