 It is a great honor and blessing to be here on this campus. And before I begin, if I could just, my brother Deacons don't mind, I wanna say a few words to our priests. I don't get a chance to speak in front of priests very often. And I just wanna first of all say thank you. Thank you for being fathers to us. I'm a man who grew up when my father left our family and I helped my mother raise my siblings. So I know what it's like to come from a household that without a father. My mother never tried to replace my father, but what she did, she made sure there were other men in my life that were models of what authentic fatherhood looked like. And many of those men in my life were priests. So I owe part of my vocation to the Deaconate, to the gift of the priesthood. And when I do travel, I travel about 250,000 miles a year. I'm at a different parish on an airplane somewhere every week. I stay often with priests in the rectory. And I've been there having dinner with the priest when he gets a call. He has to get up, head to the hospital. I've walked up to the rectory. And as I'm coming in with my bags, the priest is going out. Deacon, make yourself at home. I need to run out and do no problem, father. When I open the refrigerator, the only thing in there is a stick of butter and a bottle of vodka. That's all you need. I've been in the car with priests that have four, five, six parishes. And we're going from church to church to church on Sunday. And we can't stay in grief because he has to hurry up and get to the next. So I've seen it and I want to thank you and why it's important for you to be here at this place. The second thing I just want to share with you is why this place is important. Yesterday, I had one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life. I've been ordained 20 and a half years. I've preached literally 29 countries. I've done thousands of masses. I've preached hundreds of homilies. Yesterday was Corpus Christi. I've read that John 6 Gospel hundreds of times. But yesterday, as I was reading the Gospel and I got to the line that said, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. I could not get another word out of my mouth. I was so overcome with emotion. I was choked up like I was about to cry. That's never happened to me ever. I've deacon at the Vatican twice. And that's never happened to me. It was the sense that I really believed those words in the depth of my being. I knew that those words were true. And so I Paul, I don't know, it seemed to me like a long time. I hope it wasn't that long. And I was just resting in the spirit. And then when I opened my eyes, I went, oh, man, where did I leave off? But the fact that that happened here at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I was reflecting on that experience all day today. It happened here at this place on this. And you're all here, priests, my brother deacon, seminarians. So take advantage of your time here. Come away for a while and rest in the Lord. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, we cannot separate our lives from the Eucharist. Jesus made himself the bread of life to give us life. Night and day he is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to adoration, come back to the Eucharist. See, brothers, the Eucharist is not just important to evangelization. The Eucharist is evangelization. Because what is evangelization? Good news. That's great. It was used that way, of course, at the time of Christ. Evangelium, good news, except when Caesar proclaimed news. Because Caesar was the king and news from the king was just not good news. It was life changing news. Why? Because news from the king will change your life. Well, we serve the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And so the gospel that we proclaim, the gospel that we live, is not just good news. It's life changing news. Because news from our king can and will change lives. And I tell you, brothers, that's what this culture is hungering for. It's hungering for the Eucharist. What do you mean? Now, I don't watch television. To me, I call it the idiot box, okay? Especially if you watch political talk radio. Don't do that or television. Everybody that watches that stuff, they're angry all the time. But I got to admit, during the pandemic, when I was home and I watched a little more television I would normally watch. And so I'm flipping through the channels. I'm shocked at how many shows there are about vampires and zombies. I'm flipping the channel, walking dead or waking dead. And this zombie apocalypse, this, then vampire up, twilight or traffic light, stoplight. I don't know what. So I'm saying to myself, why is this culture so obsessed with these malevolent creatures of folklore and legend? Then it hit me. What do vampires and zombies have in common? They're dead. But yet they're alive. So what does a vampire that's dead have to do to stay alive? Drink blood. What is a zombie that's dead have to do to stay alive? Eat flesh. See, what the culture is craving is flesh and blood. But because they don't know what happens at this altar, because they don't know who's in that tabernacle, because they don't know Jesus, they're trying to find flesh and blood in creatures that are dead. That can't give them nothing. When for free, and why is it free? He already paid the price. They can come to the altar of the living God and receive the true flesh and blood that will give them eternal life. Vampires and zombies make believe. What happens at this altar at every mass is the really real. And I tell people all the time, what is the deepest form of intimacy we could have with God on earth? Eucharist. The next time you'll be that close to God is when you're dead and you're standing before him for the particular judgment on earth, body, blood, soul, divinity. So I just want to offer just a few quick reflections on some things that happen at the mass. So for example, the preparation. You do the bettika or the blessing prayers. Bless you Lord God, bless you the bread to offer, the wine to offer separately. Right? And then a few minutes later, you do what Jesus did the last supper. You consecrate the bread and the wine separately. Why? Okay, I'm sure you already know. You're a priest, right? But when I asked this question, a lot of people don't know. So here's what I'd say. Look, they offered many different types of sacrifices in the Old Testament. Some of the sacrifices were blood sacrifices. So they would take an animal and they would slaughter the animal. It's a zarach in Hebrew, zarach for the slaughtering. So when you cut the animal, the animal bleeds. So the separation of blood from the body, what happens to the animal? It dies. Separation of body and blood is an action symbolic of death. Jesus separated them because he's showing that he's offering a sacrifice. But then what happens at the odd news day? You break off a piece of the host. You drop it into the child's womb, of course, has the body, blood, soul, divinity of Jesus in it. Why? If the separation of body and blood is an action symbolic of death, the reunification of body and blood is an action symbolic of life and resurrection. Because what do you do next? Elevate. And what do you say? Eche, odd news day. Eche, quito li picata mundi, John 129. Remember John is baptizing and he sees Jesus coming. He takes attention away from himself and he directs people to Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world. And what are you doing at that point? You're elevating and you're taking attention away from yourself and you're directing people to Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Biate, quiat, ce'am, agdi, vocati, sun. Revelation 19 verse 9. Blessed are those who are called or in Greek. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Where Christ, the eternal bridegroom, gives love, life, intimacy, and communion to his church through that Eucharist, through your hands as priests. Another thing that we see is during the preparation the deacon drops a drop of water into the cup. Chalice that has wine, of course, it's still wine at that point. Why does the water mix with the wine and why does the deacon do it? Again, one thing I love about being Catholic, we have something called multivalent meaning, polyvalent meaning. We have something that means different things. For example, you think of water and wine mixed together. What's the image that comes to your mind? Right? When Longinus speared our Lord in the side, what came out? Blood and water. Right? But what's a deeper meaning? What does that drop of water represent? Our humanity, all of us. So in that drop of water, our hopes, our fears, our joys, our sorrows, everything we have and everything we are are offered along on that altar of sacrifice. And when you offer the Chalice, especially in the Roman canon, Eucharistic part number one, or as the people say, the long one, you pray that your angels take this sacrifice to your altar in heaven. So God recognizes the sacrifice with that drop of water, the hopes, dreams, fears, the lives of the people mixed together. And then he returns it to us as the body, blood, soul, divinity of Jesus. Now, why does the deacon do it? Who does the deacon represent at the altar? The people. So that he drops that water in because he represents the people. Therefore he drops the water, the prayers of the people. Beautiful relationship there. And think about this. Once you drop the water in the wine, can you take the water out again? That's the point that in that Eucharist, our lives are so deeply and intimately connected with the life of God that we cannot separate ourselves from him. That's the point. Now, the words of Jesus are extremely important, as you already know. If you don't say the words of institution, there's no Eucharist. You have the right matter. You could have, you know, if you don't say the words, there's no Eucharist. We have to look at the words of Jesus. Now, I've been honored and privileged to travel to Australia seven times. And Chris, is Chris here, Padgett? Chris just got back from Australia. He just got back. So he knows what I'm talking about. And I spoke in Perth at a university and I gave a fairly academic talk on the Catholic response to atheism. So I spoke about the entropic principle of a fine-tuned universe, multi-universe theory, entropy, all the scientific stuff. And I talked about the Inquisition and the Crusades because a lot of Catholics don't even know what that stuff was about. So I had to explain all that. And after the talk, an atheist came up through one of the professors at the university and he said, Deacon, I just want to thank you for your talk. Because first of all, you didn't belittle us. You didn't mock us. Sometimes people come here and they just want to make fun of us. You didn't do that. And you actually represented our position very well. You were honest about what we believe as atheists. I said, well, thank you, professor. I appreciate that. I'll make a small talk. What do you teach here? He said, Greek. You teach Greek here? Yes. Holy spirit moment. I said, professor, do you happen to have a New Testament in Greek in your office? I said, yes. I said, if it's not too much trouble, could you get it for me? I am dying to ask you a question. So he looks at me like, why is this Catholic fine halfway around the world to ask an atheist a question about something in the Bible? But he was very gracious. He went and got it. And we looked up Luke 2219. And so we read it in Greek. Tauto estin tosomomoi. This is my body. Or literally, this is the body of me. So I said, professor, can you please tell me what's going on in that sentence? He looks at it again. He says, well, the subject of the sentence is making an absolute identification with the object. I said, can you say that again? So I could tell people what you mean. So he said, the subject of the sentence, the person speaking, is using a demonstrative adjective. The demonstrative adjective modifies nouns which place specific things, the specific time and place. He said, he used this word, this, that modifies the noun that follows it in the sentence. Now, if he said that if this was bread, you would expect to see the word artos, which is the Greek word for bread. Instead, you see soma, which is body. So the professor said, this, whatever this is, the person speaking is saying, absolutely unequivocally that this is his physical body. In fact, he said a way you can translate that is this substance in my hands is my physical body. I said, let me be clear. Can you read that sentence and say, well, it's a sign, it's a symbol, it's a metaphor, it's a representation? He said, absolutely not. I said, let me be clear again. If the person speaking said, whatever this is, they were holding in their hand, their arm, their leg, their liver, their kidney. And he said, this is me. That's what that means. He said, yes. I said, professor, I'm just curious. How do you get a different interpretation from what you told me? He said, I said, Jesus, okay, so I know some of you know what that means. But exegesis, of course, is when you look at a text, you examine a text, you extract the meaning from the text. I said, Jesus, is when you read your own meaning into the text. Now, the text doesn't say what it means. It says what you want it to mean. That's the only way you can get a different interpretation, he told me. Now, what's so powerful about that example? He's an atheist. He doesn't care what the Catholics say. He doesn't care what the Protestants say. He has no dog in the fight. He could care less. He doesn't even believe in himself. But that doesn't matter. What he's saying is objectively, here is what the person speaking is saying. And you look at an objective. There is no other meaning unless you make it mean something else, which blends perfectly with what we heard yesterday in the Gospel. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. My flesh is food indeed. My blood is drink indeed. But Jesus says a few more words. Do this in remembrance of me. He does not say when you do this, remember me. Not just playing with words here. Jesus said those words in that order for a reason. And here it is. Now, we talked about one type of sacrifice they offered, which were blood sacrifice, Zadak, slaughter. But there are also sacrifices that they offered that don't bleed. Grain, wine, oil, incense, right? Remember Genesis 14? When Abram makes the sacrifice, he finishes the battle, he has the booty, the loot, what I don't know what they're calling it. I think they changed that word booty because they didn't like that, right? But who shows up on the scene? Melchizedek, Melakzadek, the king of righteousness. And what does he offer? Bread and wine. And in Psalm 110, messianic psalm of fulfillment. What does David say about the future Messiah? He is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek offered. So you can't use the word Zadak for a sacrifice that doesn't bleed. So you have to use the word asa. Asa means to do a sacrifice. Now, it doesn't mean like do or make in English or aseder. In Spanish means to do or to make. Or faturi in Latin means to do or to make. It's specific asa, it's specific Jewish terminology for offering a sacrifice that cannot be killed. And if you look in the commentaries by the Jewish rabbis, especially when this word is used in Leviticus, it's offered for the forgiveness of sins while incense is rising. Asa. So Jesus used to do this in remembrance. And Father David did a phenomenal job in his homily explaining this. So I just want to break it open just a little bit because you all know this already. So anemesis is that the way you say it now, right? Anemesis or anemesis, right? Remembrance, right? And in Hebrew, it's Zacher. Zacher. Now, if you're with a Jewish brother and sister, for our Jewish brothers and sisters, memory is a living thing. Memory does not simply mean, there's 12 times in the Old Testament where the word Zacher is used for a memorial. Only once, one exception in the book of wisdom is that, is one of the meanings is memory, like remember the past. All the other occasions, memory is a living thing. So it means the graces and blessings of a past event are made real and present now. So when our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate the Passover to this very day, they're not simply remembering what happened 3,000 years ago in the Exodus. They're actually there. The same graces and the same blessings that were given to the Israelite people at that first Passover in Exodus, those same graces and blessings are given to the Jewish people right now in the Passover. That's what they believe. Now, you want a little proof text for this, Exodus chapter 13, verse 8. Now, remembering the Seder meal, there's a question asked by the youngest child, why is this night different from every other night? Why are we eating unleavened bread? Why are we eating bitter herbs? Why are we dressed like this? What is the answer that the oldest child, the son, was supposed to give? Exodus 13, 8. And you should tell your father, tell your son on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of the land of Egypt. Not what the Lord did for our ancestors when they came out. No, present tense. What the Lord did for me when I came out of the land of Egypt. Oh, and what does it say here? It shall be for you as a memorial, it's a hair. So Jesus uses that same language to show that, of course, we're not killing Christ over and over and over again. The one sacrifice of Christ, and Father Dave described it so beautifully yesterday, the space time of you like Star Trek, the space time continuum is rent asunder. And the same graces and blessings that fall from that cross are made real and present on that alternate every mass. It's the one offering of Christ that's made real and present. The same graces. Why that that means what? Every mass we're at the foot of the cross. And I'm telling you, brothers, when young people understand, really understand that, they start to fall in love. Because so many of our young people are fans of Jesus, not followers. They know stuff about Jesus, but they don't know Jesus. And you can't get to know our Lord any more deeply or any more intimately than when he gives himself to us, body, soul, divinity, Eucharist. I'm telling you, once young people understand that, I was giving a parish mission in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I was not scheduled to speak at the high school. Usually when I do miss, I preach at all the masses. So I preached at the mass, I was greeting people at the back, and the high school principal goes over and says, hey, you're that guy from chosen. The confirmation program, I say, yeah, that's me. He goes, I didn't know you were going to be here. How about that? I love you to come and talk to the kids at the school. And I said, oh, that'd be wonderful. He goes, I'll arrange it. So he made, so he canceled classes in the morning. And there was 800 kids gathered in this auditorium. And I'm up there. He didn't ask me what I was going to talk about. So we're ready to go. He's got the mic. He goes, what are you going to talk about? I said, the holy sacrifice of the mass. He went, what? He thought I was going to talk about T.O.B. or something cool. You know what? I said, I'm going to talk about the mass. His face looked like I just made a big mistake. So he does a nice introduction that he says, and the deacon here has talked to us about the holy sacrifice of the mass. Literally, you heard arms were crossing, eyes were rolling. Some of the faces look like I'd rather be in physics than listen to this. Brothers, I spoke for an hour and a half without stopping. At the end, I stood there for 45 minutes while kids lined up around the gym to thank me for coming. That weekend, I got a Facebook message from a parent. What did you tell my kid? My son who never wants to go to church says, hey, mom, you see when the priest breaks off the host and drops it into the child's, let me tell you what that means and what it means for my life every day. I'm looking at this kid like, and here's the best part. She goes, how come I don't know that? I've been counting my whole life and I don't know that. Once they understand and they make the connection between what Christ is giving them in this sacrament, they'll never want to leave them. They love, we just have to unlock. See, it's like the Holy Spirit is like embers that have to be stirred into flame, huh? Stirred into flame. That's what effective vandalization is all about. Now lastly, and then I want to talk a few minutes about evangelization. Jesus says, drink my blood. Now that sounds like some vampire stuff from here, right? Drink my blood. I mean, that sounds whacked. What is he talking about? In fact, if you look at Leviticus 17, there is very strong prohibitions against the consumption of blood. Right? I might have time to go through, but Leviticus 17 starting at verse 10. And if the Jewish people want to say something important, how many times do they say it? Three times, because there's no superlative words in Hebrew or Aramaic. So words like the greatest, the best, the most that we use all the time. There are no words like that. So in order to express something to the highest or greatest degree, they did one of two things. They used a prepositional phrase. So for example, in 1 Timothy or the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is king of kings and... Or they said something three times. So Leviticus 17 starting at verse 10 says three times, don't eat blood, don't eat blood, don't eat blood. Why? The blood is the life of a thing. Who's in charge of life? God. In the Old Testament, who's the only one who could touch the blood? The priest, the one who offered the sacrifice. Huh? He's the only one who could touch the blood. Because they thought of God's blood, God's life is like nuclear energy. It's probably very useful, but you don't want any of it on you. So don't eat... So why does Jesus then say, drink my blood? Because he wants his life in us. That's the point. He wants his life in us. So the blood no longer defiles you. The blood of the Lamb defines you. That's critically important because we live in a culture that's trying to redefine everything. Marriage. Gender. Redefine. And they want to label you. I said to the folks this weekend that sometimes people are like, you are a black Catholic. I said, well, actually, I'm a Catholic who's black. I said, what? What do you mean? Are you... Are you denying your black identity? No. See, when I stand before Jesus Christ, when I die, he's not going to ask me how black I am. Did you pick up your cross and follow me? I gave you talents. Where's my 10-fold, 50-fold, 100-fold return on the investment I made in you? That's what he's going to ask me. Now, does that mean I deny my heritage? No, I was born in Barbados. I'm an immigrant to the United States. I became a citizen at 17. I love my Caribbean heritage. I love our food. I love our music. I still speak our dialect. I love everything about being black. But that doesn't define me. Being a loyal son of the living, God defines who I am. This culture doesn't define me. All right, one last quick thing here. Before I started doing this full-time, I was in law enforcement for 23 years and I was an anti-terrorism expert. So I trained and Flexi fell off towards a training center and in Quantico, the FBI Academy, with Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Naval Intelligence. I used to teach a class at the police academy called Contemporary Threat Assessment Methodology. So I used to teach police officers the first response I had to identify and respond to threats of terrorism. And I was on the county threat assessment team. So one of the things that we did, we bring in the, every month, we bring in the Imam and the Rabbi and just say how you guys have any threats, anything that we could help you with. So I got a chance to know the Rabbi a little bit. And so Holy Spirit moment, something told me to invite him to mass. Now this Rabbi had never stepped aside at Catholic Church before. And I wasn't deaconing. I said, well, I just want to come and serve. So we sit down in the back and he's looking around. Of course, he sees the crucifix, everything, right? But he looks around, he's, what? He looks at the, he says, what does he see? A secretus table. And you see that bow with the war? That's the labor. Huh? Exodus 30, right? When the, before you go from the 10th of meeting to the altar of sacrifice, there was a labor filled with water where the priest washed his hands and his feet before offering the sacrifice. I said, there's the altar, right? And there is the tabernacle. And he goes, the tabernacle. What's he, I said, inside is the lechem hapanim. He went, whoa. Because what is the lechem hapanim? The bread of the presence. Or panim could also mean face. The bread of the face. Whose face? Whose presence? God's. Of course, for them, it was symbolic. In fact, what else is the saying in the book of Leviticus? Whenever the lechem hapanim is in a tabernacle, there must be a light that's continually burning. I said, we stole that from you. So this idea of Christ being present under what looks and appears like bread, that's nothing new. Jesus, make that up. Remember, Jesus, I have not come to a boss along the prophets, but to fulfill them. So where does this lead us to evangelization? After Mass, the deacon kicks you out. Go, she is sent, right? Go in peace, glorify the Lord by your life. Go and announce the gospel of the Lord. Get out! You just received Jesus Christ in word, fed and nourished by the word that prepares our hearts, our minds, and our souls to receive Him again. Body bustle, divinity, Eucharist. Now go out and be Eucharist to the world. Or what I call in my first book, living Eucharistically. Taking what we receive and showing people Jesus. Because I'm telling you, there are people out there who don't know who Jesus is, and it will meet Jesus for the first time when they meet you. Or they meet people in your congregation. That's their first encounter with the living God. So what does that encounter look like? I'm going to use different examples from the ones I gave this weekend. So when I first got to, or I live in Oregon, I was immigrated from Barbados, I lived in Jersey. And now I'm in Oregon because my wife is from there, and she didn't like New Jersey, so whoop! Right where it goes there. Right where it goes there. But you know if you're from Jersey, as far as we're concerned, Philadelphia's the West Coast. Come on now, so. So I was working in charge of school safety, security, school, SRO, school resource officers for a very large school district in Oregon. And I worked at the risk management office, which was full of fawn away Catholics, including the risk manager, who had a cubicle next to mine. So I was in our diocese to have a master's degree in theology for the deacons. So I was in graduate school, and I just finished writing a paper on marriage, which I was very happy with. In fact, after I was ordained, it got published. And so I was very happy with it. And one day I came into work. Here's the thing, when you're living eucharistically, you're going to recognize opportunities that God places in your life to throw a few seeds of faith. Because evangelization is not about changing people's minds or ramming the truth down people's throats or trying to convince people arguments. That's not evangelization. And it doesn't work. Because if your idea is, I'm going to win this argument, okay, you may have won, but the person is further away from when you started. What did you accomplish? Nothing! The whole idea is, how do I get this person in front of me to want to listen to more of what I have to say? Even if they walk away from you mad, they're walking away thinking. And you want them to come back for more. All right? So here's the door. The door opened, throw some seeds. So I came into work and the risk manager, again, fawn away Catholic, he didn't go Christmas and Easter. He just went to the funerals. I don't, what do you call that one? A deadbeat Catholic? I'm not sure what you call that. But very, very nice, what I call a natural law guy. Very nice guy. So I don't know, him and his wife must have had a blowout fight. He was cursing his wife up one side and down the other, broke my heart. So the next day I came in with my paper and I did this. These people trying to kill us up in here. All this work, I'm going to fail. They're going to keep me out of the deactivated program. I don't know what I'm going to do. He comes over to me and goes, you okay? I said, well, you know I'm studying to be a deacon, man. And they're giving us all this work to do at this paper, which is a huge part of my grade. I was up all night working on this paper. I didn't get any sleep. I didn't even get a chance to proofread. I'm probably going to fail. They're going to throw my ghost. You want me to take a look at it? Oh, would you? So he takes the paper and right before lunch, he brings it back. I said, oh man, I can't tell you how much this meant to me. Thank you so much. Did I screw this thing up? He asked one question. I answered it, never brought it up again. Seed thrown, get out and let God be God. Fast forward. I leave that job. I get a job as police chief at a university in Portland. And the governor names me to the Department of Public Safety, Standards, and Training that oversees the training of police officer. I have to drive down to Salem for a confirmation hearing. So after the hearing, I said, hey, my old office is right over here. Let me go say hi to my friends. So this is over two years later. I walk into the office. Hey, you're back. Hey, you're back. This dude stands up. What are you doing here? I said, dang man, happy to see you do. He said, I was just about to call you. I have not heard from this guy literally in over two years. He goes, you have some time? I said, sure. So we sat down. He told me that his wife had cancer. She lost one breast. They don't know if they can save the other one. But he goes, but I know that you are a man of prayer. Will you please pray for my wife? I said, let me tell you something right now. I'm going to pray for your wife and you and your family. My wife and kids. I'm going to get my church. I'm going to get some monks and nuns. I'm going to get everybody praying for you guys. Is there anything else I can do for you? He said, remember when you worked he wrote that paper? Not to think for a second paper because it's been over two years. And I said, oh, right. He said, can we talk some more about that? How do I get this person in front of me to want to listen to more of what I have to say? See, here's the problem. Two years. You're thinking, oh, I happen. Let's see. Look, we don't serve a fast food God. God works in his time. And God's timing is always perfect. It's not our time. Sometimes we just have to trust and wait on God. But God will always be faithful. Right? Another. We're recording this one, right? So I'm debating whether I should say this one or not. So this was at a pro-life rally. And oh, I'll just go ahead. Doesn't go for it. And then I want to just end talk a little bit about confession. So I'm not afraid. I am pro-life. I'm not afraid before. But I publicly, people throw things at me, yell things at me. That's fine. I was at this rally and this was outdoors in Portland. Oregon Right to Life. And it was an outdoor, in fact, you can see it on my YouTube channel. It was an outdoor pro-life rally. They had a stage on one side for the speakers and a stage on the other side for praise and worship band of this plaza. And so the way they did it, speaker would speak, praise and worship. Speaker, praise and worship. So it's my turn. I get up there and you hear the crowd chanting. So the camera pans over and you see hundreds of protests behind a police barrier. Get your rosaries off my ovaries. Stuff like that. So I'm like, let them yell. They're not going to be as loud as me. So I talked for about 17 minutes. Then the camera shuts off. Here's what the camera didn't show. The protesters now shifted down the street. Why? They wanted to drown out the praise and worship band. So what I saw when I looked across, there was a young lady who had her head down on her phone. She had her sign braced against her legs as she was texting. I went, let me go say hi. So I walked under the police tape toward the blue police barrier. She did this, I know you. You were the one that just up there talking. How dare you say a woman is ever right to choose. How dare you say a woman is out of control over her own body. How dare you say a blob of tissue was a person. You want to go back to clothes hanger abortions. And she's, I mean, she's ripping into me. And I'm standing there and I'm saying nothing. I'm praying to the Holy Spirit to give me something to say to this young lady. Now, my response was based on partly of how she looked. Okay. So I'm going to describe it to you because I'm from Jersey. That's what we do. But she was called what I call a typical crunchy Oregonian. About 23 year old white girl blonde hair, dreadlocks. She had Birkenstocks, tie dyes, tattoos, piercings. She's hairy. She smelled like she'd been hugging a tree in the wood for three days, that kind of thing. So, so when she finished talking, I mean, she was yelling so loud, she was almost spitting in my face. When she stopped talking, I said, are you a vegan? Don't change the subject. I said, well, actually it's quite relevant to what I have to say to you. You don't eat meat. I don't eat meat, I don't eat fish, I don't eat eggs, I don't drink milk, I don't eat butter, I don't eat anything produced by an animal. Because they pump these animals full of hormones and chemicals, and they fill these animals with diseases, and they put them in laboratories to find cures for us. No, I don't eat anything by an animal. Do you recycle? Of course I recycle. We have to protect Mother Earth as you thought about greenhouse gas, and global footprints, and global warming, and all that stuff. So when she finished, I said to her, you know what? I can totally appreciate where you're coming from. For us, as Catholics in the Bible, it says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, so when you eat good things and take care of yourself, that's a good thing. I commend you. The Bible also says we're caretakers and guardians of creation. So when you take care of the earth, that's a good thing. I applaud you. But can I ask you a question? Are you on birth control? The question is that! That's not if you're a God! Beep! Business! Personal question! Well, we're both out here talking about abortion. That's pretty personal too. Humor me. And she leans in. Yeah, I'm on the pill. So what? Now I'm confused, because you just told me one of the reasons why you don't eat meat, they fill these animals with hormones and chemicals. Yet you're taking artificial chemical hormones that tricks your body into thinking that it's pregnant. And when you piss out the estrogen, it goes into the river system and kills the fish. So I pulled up a study on my phone from the University of Colorado and looked at a study of the effects on river fish from a sewage treatment plant downstream because of the effects of estrogen and plastics in the water. I said, the very animals that you're trying to protect, you're killing them. I said, I'm green and organic when it comes to sex, how come you're not? And she's like, why? Because now she has to think. It's not about feeling. So now we have a problem. The praise and worship ban finished. Her friends are coming back. I'm like, oh, this is going to get ugly real fast. So I took out a pen and I wrote on a piece of paper ahead of my wallet. Pope Paul VI Institute. I said, green, organic sex for you. Check it out right here. Now, what could she have done? She could have not have taken it. She could have taken it, spat on it, threw it back in my face. She could have taken it, ripped it up or crumpled up and threw it in my face. She took it and put it in her purse. And then when her friends reached us, I backed away from her. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Now, why did I do that? So she can say face in front of her friends. Now she doesn't have to explain why were you talking to him? But she that is effective evangelization. So my job to show what the Holy Spirit did in her life. She came to the church. Nope. Throw the seed, get out. Now to finish up, sacrament of reconciliation, extremely important. You guys aren't fathers like I am or Chris, but you better believe you give life. You give life to us in the Eucharist. No priesthood, no Eucharist. And also through the sacrament of reconciliation. We walk attack, confessional, dead. And we come out alive. So think about it like this, brothers. Two men are working in an office together. One is a passionate Catholic almost falling away. The guy who's Catholic is going to church at the 12.05 mass down the street. He decides to invite his friend to come. He goes into the cubicle. Excuse me. Yeah. Ah, hi. I work in the cubicle over here next to you. I heard that you used to be Catholic. Guess what? I'm Catholic. I've been going to mass down the street. I would invite you to come with me today. I ain't going anywhere with you. Get out of my face. Oh, okay. But he's persistent. He comes back again next day. Hello. Yeah. It's me again from yesterday. I know you said no, but I thought I'd ask you again. No. Bye. Okay. Comes back the next day. Finally, Friday. Excuse me. Look, every day you ask me to go to church with you, every day I say no. How about this? I will go with you to church today. On one condition, that after today you never ask me again. Okay. So they go down to church, they walk in, and they walk in and notice the lights on in the confessional. So the friend turns his buddy from the cube. Since you're here, father's here in confessions. Maybe it's a great chance for you to come back to the church. I don't even want to be here with you right now. What makes you think I'm going to walk into a dark box and tell some man my sins? Okay, okay. Well, I'm going to go. So the friend goes in, he goes in himself. He hears his confession, comes out, does his penance. Mass starts. He's listening to the word of God, allowing the spirit to move his heart, how the spirit is touching him in those readings. The other guys, come on, come on. Texting, checking messages. Mass is over. They said, remember, okay, I'm not going to ask you again. As they walk across the street, there's a horrific accident and both of them are killed. They're now standing before Jesus. The guy from the cubicle goes first. Lord, of all the things I've done in my life, all the sins I've committed against your name, which one was the worst? And without saying anything, Jesus just takes a step back and like a movie screen reveals to him all of his unrepented mortal sins. The last screenshot is from the Passion of the Christ. Jesus' bloody broken body on the cross. Jesus turns to him and says, your sins put me there. Disappears. The first friend is his turn now. Lord, of all the sins I committed my entire life, all the offenses against your holy name, which one was the worst? Jesus looks at him confused. And says, I don't remember. And that's the power of the sacrament of reconciliation. And so I leave you, brothers, with a little passage from Ezekiel chapter 18. And I want you to reflect on this as you prepare to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. If a wicked man turns away from all his sins, which he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him for the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. So cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit for I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord. So turn and live, turn, brothers, and truly begin not just to exist, but to live. Amen.